


Rapunzel Rayllum au

by Dizzydino



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Calllum is a dork, I Blame Tumblr, Multi, No Beta, Rayla is too nosy for her own good, THIS IS A THING, but hey ho, enjoy, so mutch, zym is cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2020-10-18 00:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20630228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dizzydino/pseuds/Dizzydino
Summary: Callum did not know why, exactly, he was in this tower that he now called home. All that he did no was that A, he could not get out, B, very few people could get in, and that it was all apparently for his own good.





	1. Chapter 1

Callum did not know why, exactly, he was in this tower that he now called home. All that he did no was that A, he could not get out, B, very few people could get in, and that it was all apparently for his own good.

To protect him, lord Viren had said on his first day here, but he had never said what, or who he was being protected from.  
His stay had started just under a year ago now, when one blissful late spring day, king harrow, Lord Viren and some of the counsel had walked into the castle’s library to find Callum showing Ezran, his little brother, some of the sky magic that he had worked out how to do. Without the aid of a primal stone.  
King harrow, Callum’s loving father, had been over the moon, as had Ezran. A human, learning primal magic? And one of there family to boot. The late queen would have been so proud of him! Such a feat was unheard of.  
And then all that happiness had come crashing down around there ears. Callum did not know exactly what triggered it, but one day out of the blue he was moved into a prison cell in the dungeons isolated away from his brother and the whole royal court, and then, a week or so later, he was spirited out of the castle by the king, Viren, and a troop of guards in the middle of the night, and brought, blindfolded, to this tower, in the middle of nowhere.  


>Literally nowhere. He could not see any smoke from any town or villages in any direction. Just a blanket of trees, a mix of old growth hardwood that changed with the seasons. 

The tower itself had been at one point a mix between a fire watch and a guard station, which had been given a complete revamp to make it a prison fit for a king, let alone a step prince.  
Callum had a plush bedroom, with a on suite with hot and cold running water, a bath that could fit two of him with room to spare, a fully kitted out kitchen, that seemed to have more kit and utensils that the castle kitchens back home. the lounge had sofas for, well, lounging, with more plush pillows and thick rugs to keep the chill off his feet. The library next to the lounge was stuffed to the rafters with books, ranging from architecture to zoology, with a healthy section on magic both dark and primal.   
(some of the books, apparently had been filched from zadia over the years. Callum’s favourite was a book of skywing elf spells and enchantments.)   
There was a small yet ornate dining room just off the kitchen and a small rooftop garden that could be accessed off of the balcony, that was currently full of edible and mediational herbs and shrubs. It was a ornately tiled, gilded cage, but a cage none the less.  


It was not like he did not get visitors. Lord Viren was over almost every other week, to check the enchantments on the tower, and to run a series of tests on Callum himself, a physical head to toe and some bloodwork.  
_“to make sure you stay healthy.” _was the reply he got, after Callum had asked Viren about it.__  
King harrow tried to visit as much as possible as well, Ezran in toe. The tower would always be full of light and laughter when thy came round, as the brothers caught up, and the king got chance to just be a dad for a while, safely tucked away in this little corner of nowhere.  
Rarely, Aunt Amaya and Gren would visit too, if they were in the aria. It was rare enough that she would get time way from the Breach nowadays, but if she could, she would manhandle Viren into unlocking the tower so she could visit.  
She was always thrilled to see how Callum’s sign language was progressing with each visit.,B>   


_ __ _

Viren was the only one who knew how to unlock the spells keeping the tower on lockdown, so he would always be there if someone was visiting. At least he was respectful enough to give some privacy. 

Apart from that, Callum’s only company over the past year had been a quartet of silent, shadowy servants that Viren had summoned to look after him, so he could be looked after like a prince should, with out there being any need for actual people, who may spill secrets after one too many pints at the pub.  
If Callum was to be very honest with himself, the smoky shadows with glowing purple eyes and what looked like runes etched into them creeped him out no end, but he had gotten used to them. They had to be anchored to the tower somehow, since Callum had once tried to dissipate one of them with an Aspro spell, only for it to reform after an hour or so.  
There was Cookie, the chunky looking one, who would be the one to cook and clean the kitchen, and was also the one to bring supplies back form.. somewhere if they were needed. Fido was the towering guard that roamed about the base of the tower at night, and stayed outside the spelled and bricked up door due in the day. They would tilt there head like a dog if Callum addressed them. Daisy was wispy, small, and looked after the general cleaning, and would make his bed for him if he forgot to do so in the morning. And then there was specks, who looked like they were wearing a shadowy pair of glasses. They stayed in the library mostly, and was in charge of tutoring him.   


Claudia thought they were cool tho, and liked to bother them whenever she and Soren accompanied Their father out to check on him. 

-

It had been about a week or so after winters turn when Viren had turned up with the egg. Shortly beforehand, King Harrow had payed a visit to Callum’s tower, to tell him that he was going on a campaign to the border, he was taking Viran with him, Claudia and Soren would be around to check on him in a couple of days, and he was not to worry, you hear.   
The night of winters tern had brought mind-blowing thunderstorms that had rattled the roof of the tower, causing Callum to stay up all night in the lounge, watching the light display that raged over head through the balcony doors. He found out a week later from his father that the dragon king thunder, his mother murder, had been slain that night, along with his heir.   


King harrow was very, very angry with Viran for that. The fight had been with thunder. The egg should have had no part in it. 

The same egg that Callum had spent up to a week ago talking to on advise of his animal whisper of a brother. It was beautiful to look at, opalescent and vibrant in the spot in the library that Callum had moved it too after Viran had stashed it in the storage aria of the tower, a storage aria that Callum definitely had not taught himself how to pick locks to get access to.   
Fast forward to a week ago, and a bout of storm magic gone lightly haywire, the egg’s contents had spilt out onto the floor, and had gotten up and started following him about on wobbly new-born legs. 

Zym the dragon was a welcome, if slightly chaotic addition to Callum’s little world. He was fun, lively, and it was nice to have someone to talk to, who would at least make some sort of sound in response. And had a pulse. That was a plus.   
Zym would snuggle next to him in bed at night, waking him up in the morning with a barrage of licky kisses. he jumped and rolled with a thick rubber ball that Cookie had brought back the day after Zym hatched, and would beg for part of Callum’s food, even after eating almost his own body weight in meat and fish minutes before. But at the same time, he would also sit and lesson to Callum when Callum just flat out needed to talk.   
Callum could not wait for Ezren to meet Zym face to face. The last time Ez had been round (without Harrow. There was some sort of big important meeting going on, and Ezren had been left with his brother for a bit) , Zym had still been in his egg, but he had manged to tell Ezran his name.  
Hence, Callum knew what to call the little rascal when he hatched, and promptly stole his sandwich. 

-

Today was like any other day. The warm spring breeze rustled the new leaf growth on the trees, bird were singing, and Zym was jumping from rafter to rafter in the lounge, testing out his little wings, stopping now and again to look back at Callum and chirp.   
That was the cue for Callum to encourage him to keep going from his perch on the sofa by the balcony doors, and to sometimes send up gusts of air to help Zym get a little more air time for the bigger jumps. Callum had found a book on plush toy making in the library, and was using some fabric offcuts to try and make a teddy for Zym, stuffed with a mix of peppery fire grass and sheep’s wool. The wool was for bulk, and the fire grass was catnip to dragons.   
It was going to be a sheep. At some point. He hoped. Aunt Amaya was so much better at sowing than he was.  
Callum had just jabbed himself in the finger for the umpteenth time when there was the sound of something heavy hitting the roof. Zym bolted over to him as the two of them sat and followed the sound of the whatever it was moving across the roof.  


It sounded like.. footsteps?   


The footsteps moved across the ceiling, and they watched as a slim figure dropped onto the balcony with a light thump.   
They-she- straitened up, lightly adjusting her hood as she peered in through the balcony windows, eyes skimming over the chair the boys had scrambled to and hidden behind when she had made an appearance.   
Slowly, carefully, she pushed the half open door.  
It swung open fully, and she stepped inside the tower.   



	2. chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a hungry, hungry elf.

Rayla had not expected to find a random tower in the middle of a forest, let alone a random tower in the middle of the thickest, spookiest forest that she had ever seen, outside of the one her town was set in the middle of.  
It was so strange, so out of place, that she had to investigate it.  
She would be in trouble with Runaan back at camp if he found out that she was ducking out of her punishment. In her own defence, she had no idea that moving that one bolder would cause a flash flood at camp last night, almost sweeping away Castello and his tent.  


But, Runaan had not seen it that way, and had tossed her out on an extended solo scouting trip at first light, without breakfast.  
Bran was probably eating her’s for her. 

A part of Rayla (mainly her stomach) hoped that there was some sort of food hidden away in the tall stone building, even if it was some dried military rations or something. Honestly, at the moment she could not care less. Food was food, and she had not eaten since sundown yesterday.  


So, brake into the tower she did. 

She took note of a tall pine to one side of the tower, that was a couple of feet taller then the roof, and used it to hop down onto the tiled roof, then to the surprise potted herb garden, than down onto the balcony that formed a half open barrier from the outside world, and peered in.  
The inside of the tower was the fanciest place she had ever seen. From her place on the balcony, she could see thick rugs that covered intricacy tiled floors, very plush looking sofas and chairs surrounding a exquisite inlayed drinks table and just flat out luxury in every inch of room.  
Even the timbers in the roof seemed to be carved.  
It looked like the hideaway of some rich human noble. Some very rich human noble.  
There had to be food in there.  


And the only thing that stood between her and her hopeful bounty was a half open, half stained half clear glass door.  
she gave the door a push.  
It swung open with no resistance, and, hood up, she stepped in.  


\- 

Her boots sunk into the carpet as she storked across the lounge, and into what could only be described as a dining room.  
Another, larger ornate table surrounded by high back chairs greeted her. So did the cut glass bowl of fresh fruit that sat in the middle, next to a jug of some sort of chilled drink and a glass. Rayla glanced around, checking for the 5th time if there was anyone about, before darting over to the table, and grabbing a large, ripe peach from the bowl.  
It was sweet and just so slightly tart and all so good. The bites she took barely touched the sides as she ate, and almost too quickly, all she had left in her hand was the pip. She placed that down next to the bowl, and took an apple next. Then another. Then a pear. Then some grapes.  
The fruit was gone all too soon, and Rayla turned her attention to the jug. The liquid inside smelled sweet, and a pored out a reddish purple. A test sip told her that it was some sort of spiced grape juice of some sort. Not alcoholic in any regard.  


She drained the whole jug. 

Somehow, despite the whole bowl of fruit and jug of drink, she was still so, so hungry. So against her better judgment, she crossed the rest of the dining room, vaulting the table as she did, and stuck her head through the door on the far side. The door led out to , blessed be the moon, the kitchen.  
The wonderful, wonderful, food filled kitchen.  
There was something delicious cooking in the oven, she could smell it. And that was a joint of meat on the counter. And veggies too. Oh, this was better than she could of planned.  


A polite cough from behind her broke her off her foodie mission. 

Spinning on her heels, Rayla wipped out her twin blades and turned to face the resident of this tower. She expected … someone else. Definitely not a teen human boy, no older than herself.  
To say that he looked slightly startled to find a blade at his throat would be the understanding of the year, she watched his green eyes flick down to the blade at his neck, then back to her, then to the blade again.  
He gave her a sheepish little grin.  
“uh, hi there?”  
Before she could reply, something jumped onto her shoulder, pulling off her hood. The boy let out a small gasp as she spun again to face the culprit.  
Something blue and white darted away as the boy stared to stammer a bit  
“You're- you’re one of those with the pointy-“  
She wheeled round and inched her swords up a little towards the blood vessels in his neck  
“Oh, you don’t like my ears?” Rayla hissed  
“N-no, I mean, yes, I do- I-I guess, uh, pointy- swords-“ the humans voice cracked a little as he spoke. They stood at a stalemate for a moment.  
Then the boy spoke up, utilising the second oldest trick in the fighters handbook.  
“HEY, LOOK! A DESTRACTION!” he pointed over her shoulder at something behind her  


And Rayla fell for it. 

The moment she turned her head, he bolted, running back across the dining room, across the lounge and to a set o steps set into the far wall. Before Rayla could catch up to him, he had dove into the room at the top of the stairs, and had slammed the door behind him, putting a barrier between him and her.  
Like that would stop the determined Moonshadow elf.  
She ran back out to the balcony, and climbed up and into the window above it, which led into yet another ornate room, this time it was a splendid bathroom.  
Just in time for the human to skid to a halt Infront of her.  
“right you…”  
He turned, ready to bolt again, when she jumped on him, pinning him to the bathroom mat.  
“RIGHT. Human. Who are you. What is this please. Start yapping. “  
“….” His mouth flapped open and closed as he started to hyperventilate, clearly scared out of his wits.  


“I said.. “ Rayla’s threat was cut off by sudden bark from the next room, and something hulking and shadowy charged her from the doorway. She jumped up, twisting to doge the blow the thing was aiming at her, only for the shadowy thing to grab her by her leg, and swing her against the wall.  
Rayla saw stars, and felt the fizzing pain of a direct blow to the horns radiate trough her skull and down her back.  
Then the shadow was back, picking her up by her neck. It then stated to squeeze, hard.  
She thrashed against the grip it had on her, desperately trying to brake free. She had been stunned by the blow, and was now fighting for air, she had little hope at this point.  


Darkness was creeping in faster than she could fight it off. 

\- 

Callum stared at the elf that Fido had pinned.  
She had to be no older than him.  
And now she was in trouble because of him.  
As far as Callum could tell from the mess in the dining room, she had only been hunting for food when she had stumbled onto his prison. He didn’t mean to startle her in any way, and he most definitely did not mean to sick Fido on her. But he did. And he had.  


And now he was watching her die. 

As he watched as the elf’s purple eyes rolled back in her head, Callum made a snap choice. One he hoped would not come back to harm him.  
“FIDO!” the shadow stopped squeezing the elf’s neck.  
“Fido. Put he down.” The shadow paused for a moment and let go.  
“thank you. You are dismissed.” The shadow bowed to Callum, and melted through the wall on there way back to there post. Callum watched for a moment, and then scrambled over to were the elf lay crumpled lifelessly on the floor.  


She was out cold, hand shaped bruises were starting to form on the fair skin of her neck.  
With a sigh, Callum used what little strength he could muster after the last very existing few minutes, and stated to try to carry the elf to somewhere a little more comfortable than the bathroom floor. In the end, he settled for laying her out on his bed, placing her interesting swords on the bedside table. They were unlike any weapon that he had seen before, and were a lot nicer to look at when not being held to his neck in a menacing manner.  


The elf herself was not that bad to look at come to think of it.  
Shaking that thought out of his head, Callum set Zym, who was now emerging from his hiding spot under the bed, on guard duty whilst he went to fetch some snacks form the kitchen.  
If the elf was still hungry by the time she woke up, then he may be able to broker peace with the aid of some pastries or something.  


He hoped. 


	3. diplomatic

“so. Let me get this right. You are a prince. You are on your own. In a tower in the middle of bugger all nowhere, for reasons you don’t really know, on orders of your dad’s pet dark mage.” “they are friends, but yes. That sums things up well.”   
“and no one finds that at all suspicious.”   
Rayla gave Callum a strange look over the pastry that she eating.   


She had woken up hours later to the sensation of a one week old sky dragon sitting on her chest, and licking her face with quite a bit of gusto. And to the sight of the very same human that she had been holding at knife point sitting next to her bed, armed with some delicious smelling fancy pastries that he promptly used to broker a truce between them.   
Don’t kill me and stay for a chat and you get as many pastries as you can eat. It was an offer that she simply could not refuse.   
They were now sitting slightly awkwardly back in the lounge, sitting in on the sofa and one of the armchairs respectively, a tray of piastres sitting between them. She had been slightly worried at first, since that shadow thing had to come from somewhere, by the moon there was more than one, and Callum had basically ordered it about.   
But any fears that she did have vanished when he tripped over his own feet whilst introducing himself, and ended up sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs.   


She was pretty sure that would be able to kick his ass with little to no problem. 

But that could wait, in her opinion, as long as he kept the food coming. these were very good pasties.   
Callum swallowed a bite of his.   
“well, my aunt finds it fishier then a fishmonger but she just can’t do much. I can’t stay with her.”   
“oh, whys that then?”   
“the border is not a safe place. at all. For anyone”   
“at the border?”   
“she’s a shield maiden.” Callum replied simply, if that answered everything and took a sip of tea.   
“ok….” Rayla rubbed her neck sheepishly. She did not know exactly what a shield maiden was, but she did know from training that they were warriors. Fierce ones. 

They sat together in a steady silence for a moment.   
“sooo. Want to tell me about the dragon.” She mentioned to Zym, who was begging snacks from her, head on her knee.   
“Lord Viren. He brought his egg back with him, after winters turn.”   
Rayla mulled over that stament for a moment, something was nagging her about it.   
The gears clicked in her head, before small bell dinged.   
“wait, wait wait, hang on a moment- He’s a sky dragon, right?”   
“yeh, well, I think so.” The only other dragons that Callum seen were in books.   
“who hatched from an egg, brought back from zadia.”   
“well, yes, were else would you get a dragon egg from? Dragons don’t live in the human kingdoms rayla.” It was now callum’s turn to giver he the weird look.   
Rayla shook her head. Things were too conviant. Way too conviant. Stuff that conviant only happened in bedtime stories and legends. The dragon prince was dead. Probably used or being used in some sort of dark magic ritual or something.   
Not sitting on a cushion between her and a human prince with a pilfered snack. 

No way.   
No sodding way.   


“Callum… er, do you think that He,” she nodded at Zym, “could be the, um..”   
“missing, apparently dead, dragon prince?”   
They looked at each over, to Zym, and back to each over, and back to Zym.   
“… well.”   
".................................."   
“ok, so he is looking really good for a dragon who has been dead for the last, what, four months?” 

Rayla was pacing now. Making tight loops of the carpet in front of the balcony windows as Callum and zym watched on.   
“this, this changes so much! So, so, much I mean, his mother is going to be over the moon to have him back, and Runaan is going to be so proud and..” she rambled on and on as Callum watched her with a little bit of concern. Then a lot of concern.   
“who’s Runaan?”   
That snapped Rayla out of her pacing, with a moment of realisation. Oh. oh no.   
“my uncle. He… oh moon above! He’s probably worried about me. How long was I out?”   
“ a hour? Hour and a bit?" adding to that the time that they had been talking... shoot.   
“ok. Ok. Look, I got to get going before he starts looking for me.”   
“oh.” Callum looked dejected, and Rayla felt a pang of sadness for the boy. He had already told her that she was the first person that he had to talk to (who was not his small family or the mage who put him here) in over 2 months. She felt sad to just leave him in this cage, but she had to be realistic. He had no way to get out himself. She was not strong enough to carry him. And even if she did manage to free him, Runaan would likely kill him if he found him in out in the woods anywhere near the camp.   
And despite what returning with Zym would do for her, and for her team, her heart was not hard enough to take him away from Callum. 

Yet, at least. 

“look, Callum. My friends and I are camped close by, so promise to visit when I can, ok?”   
“You promise?”   
“Moonshadow promise.”   
You did not go back on a moonshadow promise. 

\- 

Callum waved her off from the balcony. He had packed her the rest of the pastries into paper bag for her to take with her.   
“can’t have you going hungry now, can I?” had been his response to the look she gave him when he handed her the bag. He waved as she hopped from the balcony, too the treetops, and then down into the canopy, her green outfit blending into the shady greens of the woods.   
She ran and ran until she could see the camp through the trees. She stopped to check where everyone was.   
Runaan was sparring with Bran and Castello, whilst Mina and Ozlo sat sorting through the supply bags. Runaan flipped Bran over, and pinned him down. Rayla chose that moment to drop out of the tree that she was perched in, and down onto Runaan’s back. 

Or at least tried. 

Runaan was used to this trick of hers, so Rayla soon joined Bran on floor with a thud.   
“where were you?”   
“out scouting. Like ya told me to”   
“Oh?” he cocked His eyebrow at her.   
“yes Runaan. I’m guessing Bran ate my breakfast.”   
Runaan rolled his eyes and let the two of them sit up with Bran rubbing his short hair and protesting his innocence to the crime he was accused of. 

Rayla did not believe him. 

Runaan just shook his head at the antics.   
“Rayla. Go get some rest. And… why do you smell like backed goods”   
ah. she forgot about those.   
“I found a human camp over that way, swiped some food.”   
Runaan looked a little resigned at this statement, but carried on.   
“and?”   
“and the reason that I took so long to get back is because I tailed them a bit to make sure they wer’t coming our way.”   
“very good Rayla. Now. Go get some sleep.”   


Rayla trotted back to her tent, and stashed her snacks in one of her bags. Her actual breakfast, a mix of dried fruit, trail mix and some fresh meat, was set out on her bedroll, next to a small flask of sweet tea.   
Bran was innocent this time, apparently.   
As she lay back on her bedroll, her mind wondered back to the sad prince in the tower, just half an hour from where she was. He was all on his own up there, just him, a baby dragon that every part of her was insisting that she had to return to The dragon queen, and a bunch of creepy shadow servants.   
The latter was the reason that the former got to keep the dragon this time around.   
But he was so polite, not to mention courteous to someone who literally barged in and started eating food of his table… and to be honest, she kind of liked him, friend wise. She.. never had a lot of friends back home. And she was so, so curious about him. Just, why?   
Why was he up there? Why is he not allowed out? Why is the dragon prince ALIVE??   
Why why why why.   
As the first tendrils of sleep tugged at her mind, Rayla vowed to go back to that tower. 

Hopefully no one would complain about her going ‘scouting’ again tomorrow. 


	4. 4

No one complained. 

Rayla entered the tower the same way had she had done the day before, hopping down onto the balcony to the surprise of callum, who was sitting on the balcony, midway through what looked to be a cup of strong green tea. And some little cakes.  
She wondered were the little table and chairs came from, since they were not there before hand.  
“aww, you sitting out here and waiting for me?”  
Callum blushed and shook his head rapidly.  
“Ah, no, no, just enjoying the nice weather. Want some? “ he motioned to the tray of cakes and the spare table setting (gilded tea cup and saucer, and a plate, with a little fork). For some reason, she did not quite believe him. But she did take him up on his offer of tea and cakes. and scones..  
This boy knew how to spoil a girl.  


They sat and talked and talked about anything and everything. Rayla spoke about her home, about her uncles (she glossed over what Runaan did for a living. She did not want to tell Callum that there was a master moonshadow assassin camped out only a stone’s throw away from were he was.) about all the plants that Ethari grew and some of the sananagens that took place in elf country. In return, Callum talked about the royal cort, about all the lords and ladies, the king, castle life ect ect. Rayla had to giggle as he told her about the siblings he was friends with, the goofy yet very loyal crown guard and his bookworm mage sister.  
The way that callum got a sad look on his face as he talked about His little brother make something in her heart just break. She did not have any siblings herself, so she could not quite relate , but… yeah. Heart was breaking.  
So she changed the subject to something a bit more fun, namely, pets and animals.  
That perked callum up no end.  
For rayla, there was her uncle Ethari’s lovely blacksand eland, which he received from his adopted sunfire family when he moved to be with Runnan, (“he’s moonshadow, like me, but was adopted by sunfires when he was a wee bab”), Runaans own mount, a moonhound (a graceful white sighthound the size of an elk), who had won best in show in the past, a ‘pet’ moon moth that Runaan had nursed back to health after he found it with a torn wing last summer. It had liked the garden back home and had overwintered by hanging around the kitchen.  
For Callum, there was Bait the glowtoad, his brothers best friend and constant companion. Apparently the king had returned home from some trade meeting one fine summers day with this toad tucked into his saddle bags, and Ezran had promptly adopted him.  
Bait was a grumpy little so and so, but they all loved him.  
And there was the horses and hounds in the stables and kennels, the owls and raptors (Callum was surprising good at falconry, and was thinking about asking for his own bird) and the crows in the post office. And lets not forget his aunts beloved yet rather surly warhorse, a mare who had the honour of being the only horse that Callum could stay on the back of.  
Rayla sat back and let him waffle on, feeling surprisingly content for the first time in months. 

The warm spring sun filtered down on to them as they sat together with Zym lounging on the first level of the roof garden above them, snapping lazily at passing butterflies. It was a vision of tranquillity on this little island in the middle of a sea of trees.  
Her visit the next day, on the other hand, was not so peaceful. 

\- 

It was raining, and raining hard.  
The rest of the assassin troop had opted to stay close to camp and rest up as the was going to be a new moon that night.  
She stopped briefly to lovingly pester her uncle, who swatted at her, and then she had been off through the rain drenched trees.  
She had barely reached the balcony when Callum had come bursting through the doors, stuffing a very unimpressed sounding Zym into her arms, and telling her in a panicked whisper to HIDE, and HIDE NOW. 

So she had. 

She had hustled the baby dragon up to the garden and tucked herself in the only dry spot available, a small spot were the roof overhung the patio. A spot that also had a decent view down into the lounge, courtesy of a small, round window.  
Through that window, she could see exactly why Callum had panicked the way he did. There was a man in the tower with him.  
Tall, imposing, wearing finely embroidered clothing, holding an ornate staff in one hand, and a sturdy leather medical bag in the other.  
He did not look too happy about something.  
The down side about being out here was that over the wind a rain, and the tick glass, Rayla cold not hear what was being said between Callum and this other human, but she could tell by body language that Callum was worried.  


Could this be the Mage that Callum had mentioned to her?  
He waved Callum over to the sofa, getting the prince to sit down and remove the jacket that he was wearing, and started to pull a array of items out of the bag. A stethoscope, some other medical equipment that Rayla could not name for the life of her, yet recognised. Turns out some things were the same for both humans and elves.  
Callum was poked, prodded and probed over the course of about half an hour, with the man noting down the results from each and every test in a thick, leather bound book, stopping to talk to Callum, reassuring him by the looks of it.  
Then he pulled out a rather sharp looking needle attached to a slim, glass container of some sort.  
Callum tensed up.  
The man made soothing motions to Callum, and tied a tourniquet around his upper arm. Callum set his jaw and turned his head away in anticipation.  
The man slid the point of the needle into a vain in Callum’s elbow and drew a descent measurement of red blood up into the container, He then withdrew the needle, placing a small dressing over the wound that was left.  
The sample was bottled, labelled and packed into the bag as Callum held the dressing to the crook of his arm, talking to the man as he packed up the bag.  
The visit was soon over, with the man leaving by opining a doorway in the wall were Fido would emerge from, and sealing it shut behind him.  
The sound of horses came form the forest floor below, and hoofbeats disappeared into the treeline as Rayla finally released Zym from her hold and let him slip back into the lounge, and she followed, flipping down onto balcony and darting trough the doors out of the rain.  


Callum jumped slightly, but relaxed when he saw who it was.  
“Callum. Who the hell was that?”  
“that was Lord Viren. You know ‘the kings pet mage’?”  
“the one.. who put you in here?”  
“yup.” Callum grumbled, continuing to put pressure on the dressing on his arm. It stung.  
“what the hell was he doing?”  
Callum winced again.  
“medical check. I get one every two weeks or so. Needles and all.”  
“…… Joy.”  


Callum took note on just how drenched she was, there was literally a puddle forming around Rayla’s feet, and grabbed some towels and some dry clothing for Rayla, whilst she dried her own clothing dried in front of the fireplace.  
She had to admit that the soft lounge pants and tunic that Callum had fetched for her was very nice, and she spent a good 10 minuets or so just looking at the intricate weaving on the sleeves. She made a note to herself to try and wheedle the name and location of the tailor and fabric merchant out of Callum.  
Or she could simply swipe the tunic.  
It was a nice shade of sky blue.  
Callum came in with a tray of tea and some more little cakes for the two of them, and tried to steer the conversation away from Lord Viren’s little visit. Unsuccessfully .  
“but why do you let him get away with it?” Rayla probed him.  
“because he is the one who made the servants here, His word wins over mine.” Callum sounded completely defeated. “and, if I try to fight him off, he will order them to pin me down. And let me tell you- it’s not fun.”  
“yikes…”  
“yeh. It’s easier to just get it over with.”  
Rayla winced, and patted Callum’s shoulder in sympathy.  
“and, um, sorry for throwing Zym at you. I really don’t want Viren to find him.”  
“Ahh, I don’t mind much.”  


\- 

She stayed until her clothing had dryed, and the rain had stopped.  
Callum had let her keep the tunic after some pestering, and a confession from Callum that it looked quite nice on her.  
Rayla had flushed. So had Callum. They parted ways on that very awkward note.  
Runaan was up and about when she got back, but still looked a little tired. The new moon always seemed to affect him more then the others for some reason, but he powered trough it most of the time. Most.  
This month was being partially hellish for some reason.  
She made sure to snuggle Him, despite any grumbling that she got in return. He liked it really, but as the leader of one of Zadia’s best moonshadow assassin squad, he had a reputation to uphold. He still leaned into the hug and smiled a little.  


\- 

That night Castello came back to camp with a report of a large troop of humans on the move to the west of them. they could not quite make out the insignia that the troops were carrying, but he could tell that there was a lot of them, and they were moving fast.  
Into the woods.  
Towards them.  
Despite all of them feeling groggy due to the lack of moon in the sky, the camp was packed a moved with in the hour, to a point out of the projected path of the humans.  
Ozlo and Bran kept a watch on situation from the tree tops, and before daylight they were back with the news that the humans were camped close by, and seemed to be scouting the aria. Looking for something, or someone.  
The camp was promptly moved again.  
Needless to say, after this Rayla was a cranky demon who just wanted to sleep for the rest of the day. and part of the night.  
Runaan could get bent with the idea of sparring until the evening at least.  


-


	5. midnight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for taking so long with this my *lovely* laptop deleted my files.  
all of them.  
-_-'  
add that to starting a shiny new apprenticeship, and well, yeh. thank you for being patient with me.

The human troops had not moved for a while, so by midnight, Rayla made the decision to check in on Callum again.  
She was not worried about him in the slightest, no sir.  
Well, ok, maybe she was getting a little bit attached to this human dork, in his strange tower, with those shadowy menaces. She had spotted one of them that afternoon, gliding through the trees with an unnatural grace, hunting rabbits and some colourful game birds, no doubt to take back to the tower to feed the captive with in.  


At least he was not being starved.  


The night was cool and the sound of night birds sang out around her as she leaped from tree to tree, only to freeze as she realised that there was a shadow following her closely as moved, and one that was not her own.  
The shadow stopped too, and the two of them looked at each other. She could tell that they were human, due to the lack of horns on there head, but apart from that she could tell squat all about them, despite her very good night vision.  
On the other hand.. she was sitting in a patch of moonlight. They could probably see all of her. Very well.  
They twitched in her direction. She bolted towards the tower, darting through the shadows as fast as she could, making as many twists and turns as she could, pulling as much magic as she could this close to a new moon to cover her tracks. Who ever this was, she was not leading them to her friend.  


Yep. He was her friend. There. She said it. 

She came to a screeching halt at the edge of the towers clearing, panting hard as she scanned the trees behind her to try and spot the shadow.  
There was no sign of them anywhere.  
She strained her ears to see if she could hear anyone else out in the woods, but that came back as a negative too.  
She sighed in relief, and hopped up to the top of the pine she normally used to get onto the roof, and dropped down into the balcony.  


\- 

Callum was sound asleep when she slipped into his room. He was sprawled out on his bed, with little Zym sprawled out on top of him, both snoring their heads off. It was an adorable sight. Zym even had that little plush something that callum had been making for him over the last couple of days tucked under one paw.  
So adorable. Almost too adorable to disturb.  
Almost.  
Rayla set about poking Callum awake with glee, prodding and poking him as he tossed and turned to try to get away from her. After about 5 minuets of constant pestering, Callum sat up groggily, and fixed Rayla with a icy glare. The effect that he was hoping for was slightly diminished by his bed head.  


“Rayla… what the hell?”  
“Thought you might want to know that there is a big ol’ bunch of humans camped out in the woods. And they be organised and armed too.”  
“wh…. Wait WHAT?” that woke Callum up faster than Rayla could of ever expected. He bolted out of bed and had a candle lit faster than Rayla had ever seen someone move, apart from that one time Ethari had taken a tumble off a ladder back in sliver grove, and Runaan had ran to catch him.  
They had both ended up in the healers lodge, the idiots.  
Callum snapped her out of her thoughts.  
“did you see if they were flying any colours?”  
“….what?”  
“colours. Flags. Symbols, any clue to where they are from.”  
“oh! Eh, not the towers of Katlois, if that is what you are asking.”  
The look of panic on Callum’s face just seemed to get worse at that statement. If the people were not part of the crown guard, then…  
“they were wearing a lot of blue tho, blue, white and gold in places.”  


Callum scrunched his nose up in confusion, running through the different military and law enforcement groups that he could remember (a lot) to try and work out who they were dealing with. blue in different shades was used by a couple of different groups to a degree, as was white. Gold was used strictly by those associated with the royal family, or by those of very high ranking in the army. They only people who would ware all 3 was the royal guard from Duren, who would have to have a very good reason to be out here and…  
The sound of a owl hooting somewhere out in the woodland caught his ear. Judging by the way that Rayla’s perked up, it caught Her’s too.  
There was something … off sounding about it. Not like it was distorted in some way, but..  
The hoot came again. And again.  
It sounded like a mosswood owl, but those only visited the woods in summer and autumn, not mid spring.  
Checking that Zym had settled back down safely and snug into his bed, Callum grabbed his spy glass from its stand by the window, put on his slippers and made for the stairs. Rayla mad a confused noise as she followed behind him. “Callum, what’s the deal?”  
“that owl, there something off about it.”  
“in what way?”  
“its sounds like a mosswood owl. But at this time of year, they are nesting over the border in Duren, they only visit these woods in the summer! Why would one be here now?”  
Rayla knew what owl he was talking about, her mind countering an image of a melon sized ball of mossy green and brown feathers with big yellow eyes that she had seen in a zoo once.  
The hoot came again.  
“its coming from that direction.” She pointed out the balcony doors.  
The two of them crept over to the doors together, then on the count of 3, they slipped onto the balcony.  


\- 

The woods were alive with the sounds of the night, and there was not soul in sight. Just night birds of the faintest rustling from the ground some where below. The hooting was coming from somewhere just in front of them, too far in for even Rayla’s eyes to see clearly, even with the help of Callum’s spy glass.  
Cursing slightly they both looked at each other with matching expressions of “well, I have no clue. You?”  
Callum stepped back a bit as Rayla strained her ears to see if she could locate the poofy devil, when her eyes cough sight of movement in the trees below, and unfortunately, it was a shape that she knew somewhat.  


The shadow that had tailed her in the woods earlier had found its way to the tower.  
That was not a good thing.  
The shadow was perched on a branch just inside the treeline, and thankfully, did not seem to notice the fact that Rayla had spotted it, in fact, its attentions was not on the tower at all. The way the shadows head was angled, Rayla realised that it was looking down, towards the base of the tree that it was perched on.  
Fido had found it.  
The hulking shadow servant was circling the base of the tree, the glow of it’s purple eyes being one of the only ways that Rayla could track it. The shadow looked at Fido, then back up at the tower. Rayla swore that they muttered an oath as they did so. Then they took off through the trees at a pace that would make any moonshadow elf proud, Fido in hot pursuit at ground level. It brought some small comfort to Rayla to know that Fido could not, for whatever reason, climb trees.  
As she turned back to callum, who had fixed her with a confused look, the other 3 shadows materialled in the doorway behind them, eyes glowing eerily in the half light of the living room. Before anyone could utter a word, hey flowed around the two of them, and over the balcony, drifting down the side of the tower and disappearing into the woods, without a sound. Callum turned to her with a bewildered look, which quickly turned to terror as runes started lighting up on the edge of the balcony, and along the roof and..  
“Rayla. Run. Run now.”  
“what..”  
“just GO!”  
The shear fear in Callum’s voice jolted her into motion, and she made for the exit that she would normally use, but as she went to jump to the tree, the runes all flashed at once and she collided horns first with something hard, and slightly springy in mid-air with a _donk_.  
Then she was falling. And falling fast.  
The top of the tower, and the balcony contain a terrified looking Callum slipped out of view as she tumbled down towards the ground below her. Over the rushing of the wind in her ears, she heard what sounded a lot like Callum yelling.  
_“ASPRO FRIGIS!” _ Then she hit a wall of blueish white. Hard. ____

_ _ __ _ _

_ _ _ _

_ _ _ _

_ _ __ _ _

\- 

Claudia was woken up by one of her father’s ward alerts flashing like there was no tomorrow. Grumbling, she slid out of bed and stumbled over to the rack of crystals that she had moved from her fathers study to her room so she could keep an eye on them whilst he was gone.  
Through bleary eyes, she tried to see which one was going off like some sort of hyper firefly. Summer villa on the coast? No. the lab? No.  
She scanned the dozen or so crystals until she realised which one it was. It was the one to Prince Callum’s prison. _No, I’m not meant to call it that _she thought, as she stared at the flashing crystal blankly.   
Then it hit.  
The crystal was flashing. That meant that the security force field had been activated. And if the force field was activated that meant that……  
Oh. Oh no.  
She had to tell dad about this. There was only one reason that all of the summoned smoke servants would leave that tower, and that would be if they were chasing some intruder off, and if someone had found the tower then…  
Dad’s little plan for prince Callum would go up in literal smoke.  
She reached for her bag and started pulling out spell components.. __


	6. Lost and found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone is lost, someone is found.

Chapter 6: lost and found

The camp was in disarray.   
In the middle of the night, out of nowhere, some random human had bolted through the elven camp, narrowly avoiding colliding with Bran as they did, yelling apologies and warnings as he did- warning them of the shadowy… things that had crashed into them a couple of seconds later. The chaos that followed had left the camp in tatters, for lack of better words. The big one had ripped tents from there moorings, the smaller ones scattering the contents all over the place. they had tried to attack the shadows but there weapons had done bugger all to them.   
How do you fight smoke, for the love of peace? Sodding smoke.   
As quickly as she shadows had barged into camp, they left, apparently following the human that had proceeded them, but the distraction that there camp had posed had thrown them off the sent, since the 4 could be seen gliding back and forth in the woods trying to find there pray to no avail.   
It was only after they had rounded up up all of the not trashed parts of the camp, and bolted away to a new location, that they realised that they had forgotten about something rather big. Going back to the old camp, Runaan found no sign of her. Her tent was as trashed as the others had been, with the trinkets that she had found strewn all over the place, but no Rayla. There was no sign of her in her tent, in the woods around the old camp and.. Runaan’s eyes snapped up to the one of the shadows in the trees, watching as it started to drift, almost serenely, back the way it had come, passing in front of him as it did.   
Thankfully, it completely ignored Him.   
But.. Rayla. What if she had snuck out again, and one of them had gotten hold of her.. where would they take her.. what would they do to her? Shadow beings like that were the servants of dark mages, but he had not seen… human.. shadows before.   
Runaan did not like the way his thoughts were going.   
He grabbed Rayla’s things from the remains of her tent, and darted back to the site of the new camp, and to the rest of his team. He was going after her- but first, he needed to get help.   
Ethari, his sweet, sweet tinker, was going to kill him.   


\- 

Rayla’s head was spinning.   
And her head hurt like no one’s business, but the bed that she was resting in was warm and soft, and.. wait a moment.   
She was back in Callum’s bed. Callum’s very, very nice bed. “you fell.” Callum’s voice sounded fragile, scared. His head popped into her line of vision, and it looked like he had not slept since they spoke earlier. Knowing as little as she did about Callum, he probably hadn’t.   
“I.. fell.” She echoed back, still disoriented from the whack to the skull and the fall onto.. what did she fall on to? Things were muddled.   
“yeh.. the force field came up before you could get out, oh Rayla I’m so sorry! I should of warned you!”   
“what force field?”   
“the one that you bounced off of? You clonked your horns pretty hard.” He offed her an ice pack, that she gladly accepted from him, plonking it between her horns to quell the throbbing pain. It helped a lot.   
“why dose this place have a bleeding force field?”   
“guess.”   
“to keep you in.”   
“yes, anddd to keep people out. The latter is most probably what activated it.”   
“that mage don’t miss a trick, did he.”   
“no. no he did not.” The look on Callum’s face was the definition of unimpressed, but he handed her a bowl of soup and a bred roll and settled back int his chair as she ate, filling her surprisingly empty tummy. It was daylight out.   
“how long was I out?” she asked around bites of food.   
“7 hours? I think?” came the reply. “but don’t try to jump from the roof again- the field is still up. Something is stopping the staff from coming back.”   
“WHAT.” Rayla bolted up a bit to fast, sinking back down with a hiss of pain. “7… hours. No no no… aw, Runaan is gonna be so peeved.”   
“Who’s….”   
“my adopted uncle. He was camping with me- he’s probably worried.”   
“ah.. um, the problem is, well, the field is still up.”   
“And?”   
“well. You.. can’t leave.”   
Rayla sat up again, slowly this time, and fixed Callum with a determined look.   
“watch me.”   


\- 

“what did I tell you.”   
Callum handed Rayla another ice pack as she pouted out on the balcony, sitting grumpily as Callum bandaged the bumps and scrapes that she had gained over the past hour, as she had bounced her self off the force field repeatedly in a vain attempt to get past it. But no matter how hard she threw herself at the crystalline purple dome that separated them from the outside world.   
The result had been that Rayla had ended up sprawled on the ice league below the balcony, that had appeared at some point in the night.   
Repeatedly.   
It had not been a fun hour for Rayla.   
She glared at the field as Callum dabbed some sort of medicine onto her scrapes, adding bandages to one of the bloodier ones.   
“not to try getting through the barrier?”   
“yes. And what did you do?”   
Rayla’s glare intensified.   
“exactly. No one is getting out. No one is getting in. believe me, I have tried.”   
As it turned out, Callum had spent a whole weekend trying to get through the barrier the autumn before, pelting it with whatever he could chuck from around the tower. Then he got a earful when Lord jackass arrived to sort things out.   
“He has a alert system set up back at the Castle, so he will know what’s happened. Oh gods. Gods, he gonna find you.”   
Rayla turned back to him smugly.   
“then I will fight him, and I. will. Win.”   
“you won’t.” Callum’s voice was soft, sad. The voice of someone who knew all to well what this mage was capable off, and what would likely happen to Rayla once he arrived.   
“he will tear this place apart, use the shadows to help him. Then.. you and zym..” The little dragon chirped at the sound of his name, jumping up into his lap. Tears welled up in his eyes as the images of the fate that waited for Rayla at the hands of his captor, and knowing lord Viren as well as he did, then odds are he would be made to watch. It was all Rayla could do to reach over and give her sad prince a hug.   


\- 

They sat together out on the balcony for a little longer, watching the trees as they swayed in the breeze, birds flitting between the branches. The sadness in the air between them was tangible. Zym sat on Rayla’s lap, making soft cooing noises as he licked at the scrape on Rayla’s forearm as Callum stroked his fluffy mane.   
“you uncle is probably worried.” Callum ventured.   
“yeh.”   
“is he nice? Your uncle?”   
“yes. Well, he’s stern, but kind. Him and his husband ‘been looking after me since I was .. 5-ish? I think. My mum and dad were drafted into the dragon guard.”   
“no place for a child to go with them?” Callum noted how her ears drooped at the mention of her parents.   
“no. I was a little hellion at that.”   
“I bet.”   
They sat for a little longer, watching the world go by, looking out for any movement in the trees, trying desperately to find a way to get there minds of the reality of the situation that creeping closer and closer.   
“hey, Callum? Where did that big ol’ chunk of ice come from anyway? I don’t think it was there when I got here last night.”   
“hm? Oh, that? Yehhhh that was me.”   
“what.” Rayla gave Callum a suspicious look.   
“when I saw you fall last night I kinda.. reacted before thinking. Here look,” Callum drew the rune for aspro in the air in front of him and blew hard, causing a small whirlwind to bloom out across the top of the trees, sending birds sailing into the air.   
She stared at him, jaw hanging.   
Callum looked a little sheepish, and continued.   
“I don’t know that many spells, and well, at least you aren’t splattered all over the forest floor.”   
“you can use primal magic.”   
“yes, I think I just show..”   
“YOU. CAN. USE. _PRIMAL MAGIC._” Ralya butted in, mind reeling.   
“yes.”   
“but, but your human. Humans can’t use primal magic! Are you sure your not some poor skywing that’s been spelled to look human.”   
“pretty sure. They tested me for that when I started using magic last year.”   
“last.. fine. Half elf. Please say that you’re half..”   
“Nope~” Callum was not fighting back a giggling fit at the array of expressions that danced across Rayla’s face as her brain worked its way through the information that she had been confronted with. He was going to have to sketch some of them later. The joys of having a picture perfect memory.   
Finally, her brain caught up.   
“How.”   
“no clue. Got hold of a primal stone once, taught my self aspro, had a fever and some VERY weird dreams for about a week, then TA-DA: magic! Ez thought it was brilliant.” “and then you got ya butt landed here.”   
“… yeh.”   


Zym chirped curiously from the edge of the balcony, looking at something on the forest floor below. Callum glanced over to make sure the little drake was not going to try to take a unplanned flying lesson before offering to go and get some tea. Rayla had just nodded, still a little shellshocked.   
Callum fetched his favoured ‘battalion blue’ teapot from the cupboard in the kitchen and started to heat some water up in one of the copper kettles by the fire. He traced some of the knot work pattern on the stone counter top with his finger as the water boiled. _Poor Rayla, _ he thought, _that must have been a shock and a half._ Then again, Aunt Amaya had had a similar expression when he had shown her, much to Viran’s annoyance.   
The kettle whistled, and Callum pulled a caddy of floral black tea from the pantry, adding it to the teapot along with the freshly boiled water. Popping the filled teapot onto a tray, he fetched a matching pare of cups and saucers from the cupboard that he got the teapot from, placed then on the tray too, and turned back the way he came. He could hear Rayla chatting to Zym, asking him what he was looking at as the little dragon continued to chirp and chatter at something on the ground below. Probably a squirrel or something.   
The little guy had started to stalk pigeons along the rafters. Callum would not put it past him.   
Callum placed the tray on the table, and turned to the duo, only to find them both looking at something on the ground with quite a bit of interest.   
Callum walked up next to them and looked too.   
There was a small group of people, humans by the looks of it, were working, no, digging, at the edge of the force field. Working with spades and pick axes, they were making short work of the soft forest floor. Callum squinted at the outfits they were wearing. He could swear that he recognised that uniform from somewhere.   
Before there eyes, the group dug under the force field.   
“Callum… “ Ralya’s voice sounded worried.   
“ok, I never thought of doing that. Viran probably never thought of doing that.”   
“Callum.. if they get in…”   
“they would need to get through the doors. The magically locked doors?”   
Even as he said that, they watched as the group, half of which had wiggled through the hole they had dug, start passing what looked like war hammers under the field.. wait, what where they planning to do with those?   
They got their response when the sound of metal on stonework started from directly below them. 


	7. The Shield maiden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> surprise guests

The Shield maiden

The main problem that they were having at the moment was that the ice shelf that Callum had summoned the night before, despite having melted slightly in the morning sun, was still blocking most of there view of the ground directly below them, so they could not see exactly what was happening, but the sound alone gave them a very big hint.   
“are they.. trying to use brute force to get in here?” Callum’s gaze flitted between the sound of people and hammers below them and the sealed entrance in the lounge.   
“this place is pretty solidly built, right? And has magic worked into it, right?” Rayla tried to sound hopeful.   
The symphony of hammers on stone below added a couple more members to its chorus as more uniformed humans trickled out of the trees, some standing guard, some ducking under the barrier and hefting more hammers to aid in the task they were set at.   


The noise clearly was unnerving Zym, and Callum soon took him back inside to try to get him to settle down. Rayla stood outside for a little longer, staying away from the edge of the balcony to hide herself from the humans below. They were relentless, chipping away at the stonework more and more with each blow that rained down. After a while, even she had to retreat back inside, ears ringing from the racket.   
She found Callum in his room, making a pillow fort for Zym. The thick cushions were helping to block out the already muffled sound from outside, but did little to make Rayla and Callum feel any better. They sat, fort Zym squished between them, and waited for something, anything to happen. Even in her batted state, Rayla was certain that she could take on the intruders, but it was not like she could jump down the side of the tower to confront them, and Callum could not get any spells that would cause any damage at all that far.   
So they were stuck sitting and waiting, like trio of scared rabbits, cups of tea still in hand. (Rayla had grabbed to pot on her way in).   
It seemed like an eternity before the rigging stopped, and the sound of cheers and something giving way could be clearly herd from downstairs. Then silence. Rayla strained to hear anything going on outside, apart from faint voices bouncing back and forth, and footsteps coming from somewhere. Somewhere inside the tower.   


Oh no.   


She opened her mouth to say something to Callum about what was going on, but the sound of hammers started up again, this time from the location of the entrance way in the lounge. Zym let out a screech and burrowed deeper into the cushions, whimpering.   
“its ok little guy. We won’t let them hurt you.” Rayla tried to sooth Zym, putting in a brave face as she did. Callum didn’t bother.   
“Rayla, when they get in here, take Zym and run.”   
“what… Callum no.”   
“Rayla, you are a lot faster then me. A lot. You got a better chance at getting away with him then I do.”   
“no. no.no.no. dumb prince, I am getting you both out of here, you got me?”   
“Rayla…”   
“I will get you both out and back to ya parents, ya watch me.”   
Callum got a goofy smile on his face.   
Then, somewhere below them, the doorway gave way with a resounding crash.   


\- 

Footsteps and voices came from the lounge as the intruders flooded in. Rayla stood guard as Callum shoved some bits in a bag and grabbed his sketchbook from were it was sitting on his desk, picking up Zym’s sheep as he did. Of they were going to make a brake for it, they would have to wait for the best moment, and be very, very quick.   
Callum scooped up Zym, and took up position on the other side of the stairs to Rayla, and together they waited tense and ready to spring.   
“CALLUM! Its aright, you can come out!” a male voice called out from downstairs, silencing all of the others that had been murmuring just moments ago. Callum froze, but a smile was starting to form on his face. He knew that voice.   
“Callum.” The voice came again, closer to the stairs this time “come on out little dove.”   
Callum shed his bag and passed Zym to Rayla.   
“stay here until I say so, ok?” he whispered in her ear, and dashed down the stairs before she could stop him. The two soldiers closest to the stairs jumped at his sudden appearance, but that same suddenness got the attention of the person who was calling his name, and the person who he was speaking for.   
“AUNT AMAYA! GREN!”   


\- 

Callum was scooped up one of his aunts bone crushing hugs before his feet could leave the bottom step of the stairs. His aunt’s blue and gold armour and hair was covered in a layer of stone dust, as was the rest of the people that was here with her, all members of the standing battalion. All panting lightly and grinning massively, shouldering dented war hammers. Or, door openers, as his aunt had called them in the past.   
They had by-passed all of the layers of magical wards that Viren had put up with pure strength and determination.   
They didn’t even need to touch the blasting jelly this time round.   
“but, why are you all here? I thought that things were.. well, not well back at the border? Wait. Dose Viren know you are here?” Callum fired off question after question as sergeant Wilson, the gruff but kind head medic of the battalion, gave him a look over, pulling a face as they noticed the needle marks on the inside of Callum’s arms.   
The story was a fun one.   
Amaya had been suspicious from day one. She had raced back to the capital the moment she ‘heard’ about Callum’s ‘illness’ and ‘quarantine’, and had had to sit though hours of bluster from Viren to the hows and whys. She never got a clear answer from the fool.   
No one had gotten any sort of honest answer from him, not even the king. Which had made Amaya even more suspicious of Lord Viren’s motives. So, she started to plot the best she could from the keep at the breach.   
Each time that she had visited, she had made mental notes about the defences of Callum’s new home, tucking away bits of information that could be tacked back together away from Viren and his spies, into some sort of rescue plan.   
At this point, Callum thought of something.   
“wait, did you guys have any thing to do with the fact that the shadows have not come back yet?”   
A chorus of laughter erupted from the assembled soldiers. A tall, dark skinned woman standing near the impromptu door chimed in.   
“well, prince Callum, funny you ask that…”   


\- 

“who do you think he killed to make them?” A young looking human with dusty brown hair asked.   
“… don’t wanna think about that, peter.” A grizzled older man huffed from next to the younger one, chomping on a bit of jerky as he did so. The two of them sat about, watching the shadows trapped in a jury-rigged containment ring of elaborately knotted rope, mirrors and a shallow moat of water had been changed from a nearby creak to keep them from getting out. Hell’s teeth, they were creepy. Those purple embers they had for eyes… just those eyes….   
“.. are we keeping the warding?”   
“ ….why.”   
“well, if lord V finds out what we are up to.. won’t he send them after us? Or after the general at least.”   
“wull, damn. Didn’t think o’ that….. we better. General’s a good lass.”   
The older man swept a stony gaze over the shadows, and the trap they were in.   
“.. we gonna need more rope ‘n mirrors tho, if we gonna fix the dorms too.”   
“tell The General gets she back?” the younger one ventured after a moment.   
“yup.”   


\- 

“well, that’s new.”   
Runaan had to agree with Castello on that.   
They had set out at first light, zig-zagging back and forth in wide sweeps, covering as much ground as possible, hoping to track those shadows back to whoever had made them, and to find rayla. They had found   
Runaan made a small motion, and the elves melted back into the trees, slinking away from the humans. Rayla was not there, So, the ‘follow the shadows’ plan was not going to work. who ever this lord ‘V’ was, he most probably was not around to know that his pets had been contained. And would not be happy when he did found out.   
They all agreed that, no, they did not want to be anywhere near this woodland when the mage came back. If the mage was willing to use his fellow humans in his dark deeds, then they would not have any problems with using elves.   
They needed to find rayla sooner rather than later.   
Bran’s ears perked up, and he made a ‘follow me’ motion as he beat a trail along the tree branches, heading in the same direction that they had been tracking the shadows, towards a road, and the sound of hooves.   
Someone was approaching.   


\- 

It had taken some convincing to get Rayla to come downstairs.   
The troops that had accompanied his aunt had started to help him pack some of the tower into trunks and bags for transport to… where ever they were going, probably back to the fortress that she was in charge of, next to the breach.   
Far, far away from Lord Viran.   
General Amaya had helped for a bit, before she had pulled Callum off to one side to ask, very bluntly, if his friend was going to be coming with them or not.   
When Callum tried to bluff his way out of the question, but his Aunt had good eyes, and Rayla was not as sneaky and out of sight as she thought she was. So Callum had the un-envious job of convincing one very stubborn moon shadow elf to come down, into a room of very well armed human troops, and one very well armed human general.   
Callum spent the next half hour trying to convince her that, no, she was not going to be turned to paste the moment she went down stairs, and no, they weren’t going to hand her over to that dark mage. Rayla was less than convinced. All of the warnings that Runaan had hammered into her about humans were starting to flash across her mind, so she dug her heels in.   
She was not going down there.   
No way.   
By the end of the half hour, Callum tossed his hands up in the air, and started to pack up his the last couple of bits from his room. Rayla watched him from the top of the stairs, and tried to keep the wiggling ball of scales in her arms, who was getting fed up about being held.   


Zym had had enough.   
So he gave her a little licky, zappy kiss. Right on the cheek. This was enough of a surprise for Rayla to let up her grip.   
And he was off, down the stairs.   
Before the two of them could do anything, there was a squeal of: “HES SO CUTE!!” from somewhere down stairs, and the sound of cooing and awwws drifted up.   
Callum turned to Rayla, and made a ‘well’ gesture, and offered her his hand   
After a moment Rayla took a deep breath, steadied herself, and took his hand in hers.   
Then they walked down the stairs together.   



	8. fleet of foot

Fleet of foot

Rayla sat on the back of the wagon, and tried not to flinch each time the human general looked in her vague direction.  
She had heard.. stories about the silent general, from Runaan and others in her village. The stories painted a picture of this completely silent, scary, tank of a woman, who had the uncanny ability to sense where you were, and had survived multiple attempts on her life by Zadia.  
She was now on the (short) list of people that her village, and a lot of the others, would not accept a hit on.  
Rayla was having a hard time linking that image to the sight of the loving aunt who was fussing over her nephew. The sleigh sized shield that was strapped to her back matched the stories though.  


The rest of the party all worked together to load the wagon with the things that had been removed from Callum’s tower, mostly food, clothing, and smaller things that could be boxed up and removed in a hurry. And one baby dragon. The baby dragon was a hit.  
the last of the boxes where loaded, and Callum hopped up onto the wagon next to her, and Zym jumped into her lap.  
The deal was this: Rayla would keep an eye out for her camping party, and would take Zym with her, and they WOULD go straight back to xadia. If they could not find them, then Rayla would travel back to the border with the humans, and then cross (with zym) back to zadia. No matter which way you cut it, she was going home.  
And so was Zym.  
The General, Amaya, was many, many things, but she was not letting children, elven or not, wander about were she knew a dark mage of Viren’s calibre would be stalking about very shortly. Her own sources inside the royal castle had given her the heads up that Viren’s children had left in a hurry the night before, and Viren himself had sent notice that he would be away for a little longer than expected.  
It did not take a scholar to put two and two together.  
He would be back sooner rather than later, and none of them wanted to be anywhere near here once he did.  
People who crossed Viren like this tended to vanish in strange, and mysterious ways.  
And some times those people turned up again, very dead.  
The general gave every thing a once over, and made a motion to the troops. As one, the whole convoy moved off as one. 

\- 

They rumbled along the tight path through the trees, eyes peeled for any sign of elf in the woods surrounding them.  
From time to time, Rayla thought she saw a flash of white in the trees, that she mistook for one of her squad’s hair, but each time of was one of the many white, or mostly white birds native to aria. She was… slightly worried?  
Nah. They were probably just keeping there distance from all the humans.  
She hoped.  
Callum gave her a gentle nudge, in an attempt to reassure her, providing a gentle, sweet smile as he did. Rayla gave him a tight smile in response.  
They rolled along in silence for a little longer, constantly peering into the dappled shade around them. still nothing. After a bit, some more humans filtered out of the woods, reporting to the general that the shadows where A, loose and B, heading back to the tower, seemingly unaware that there charge was not there any longer.  
The order was given to pick up the pace. Now.  
A shadow in the trees to the left of the group made Rayla’s heart skip a beat, but it was yet another human, dark skinned with his hair up in a bun. He jumped down onto the wagon, hopped down to sit next to the wagon driver.  
The general was informed of this, and she pulled back from the front of the line to talk to him. Rayla had to sit and ask herself if this human was the same person who had spooked her the night before. He was fast, and as at home in the woods as any moonshadow elf. she was almost impressed.  
“that’s Corvis” Callum whispered into her ear “my Aunts tracker. I bet he followed you to me.”  
“he nice?” she asked back in the same tone  
“yeh, nice guy, good cook too.”  


The patch of sunlight that they rolled into was pleasantly warm compared to the shade of the surrounding trees. The path went straight though the centre of a small, but grassy clearing in the trees. The wagon had just left the tree line when the whole convoy came to a sudden stop.  
It was quite. Very, un-unnervingly quiet.  
The only time that woodlands are ever that quiet was when there was a predator about. And the humans knew it too.  
Once her eyes had gotten use to the sunlight (curse her nocturnal eyes) she could see that there was signs of violence in the grass around them. scuff marks here. A broken wheel there. The rest of a wagon laying on its side across the way.  
The convoy moved as stealthily through the clearing, bringing into to view a glimmer of sliver embedded in the stump of a tree near the wagon. Without really thinking, Rayla darted over to the tree stump, yanked the silvery throwing knife out of the bark, and was back in the wagon before anyone could tell her to do otherwise.  
She knew this knife.  
It was one of Bran’s  
She showed Callum it.  
He opened his mouth, clearly to ask her about it, then shut It again. His eyes drifted past her and to a patch of ground near the downed wagon. The grass there was stained a pinkish red, with flecks of a darker red mixing in from other splatters nearby. The pinkish red patch had a very subtle, bluish silver iridescence to it.  
Moonshadow blood.  
Rayla’s breath caught in her chest.  
The only other moonshadow elves around where her team. And clearly, one of them was bleeding. The blood patch was not large by any means, but it would still be a nasty injury to have. And it was hard to get a hit like that in on a trained, seasoned assassin.  
Rayla did not like where this was going. 

\- 

Amaya did not like the looks of things.  
Nor did Gren.  
The violence in the clearing was just the start of things, or the be truthful, perhaps where things had ended. Maybe. No one could be quite sure. About a quarter of a mile up the trail, they came across a the site of what looked to be an ambush, with broken arrows and scorch marks in and across the trees on both sides of the trail, along with a discarded bag, which on further inspection, was full of spell ingredients.  
The bag was quickly identified as belonging to Claudia, lord Verin’s daughter.  
A tuft of blond hair (Soren, clearly) was nailed to a tree by one of the arrows.  
The whole caravan was ordered to get a move on, because what ever went down out here, they wanted no part of it. 

-  
They were out of the woods by night fall, with still no signs of any of Rayla’s troop. Granted, there was the idea that they might be following stealthily along behind them somewhere, but Rayla had her doubts. She at least would of seen something, anything to give her a tip off that they were all ok.  
They had probably gone after the mage and co because they thought that he had done something to her, one of them was hurt, and there had been no surprise rescue waiting for her once they had hit the darkest bit of the trail, where there had been next to no sunlight.  
The perfect spot for a moonshadow attack.  
Something very bad had happened. She just knew it.  
She was still staring at the edge of the trees when Callum had come over to her armed with a flat bread of sorts, loaded with grilled game and wild veggies that had been plundered from the tower, and the surrounding woods.  
“come on, you need to eat.”  
“m’ fine” she muttered back, not interested in what was offered.  
“Rayla, come on. You are not fine. And word of warning, my aunt has was of making people eat.”  
Reluctantly, she took the food from Callum, and set about munching away glumly, as Callum took a seat beside her. somewhere behind them, they could both hear Zym’s whiney protests over something, probably someone not handing over part of their lunch to a poor, pitiful baby dragon.  
Callum had no words for her, but put his arm tentatively around her shoulders. She leaned in to him.  
“they will be ok.” she said to herself more than anyone “they gotta be ok. They gotta be.”  


\- 

Lord Viren rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance.  
This day of his was going from bad to worse. First, his little experiment had somehow managed to get out, with some sort of heavy duty help no doubt, and the inside of the tower had clearly been ransacked by said help.  
Despite previous teenage temper tantrums that the mongrel prince had displayed in the past, Viren was pretty sure that Callum, for all his potential as weapon and catalyst, could not of done all this by himself.  
Not at this point anyway.  
The potions in his food and drink were meant to put a damper on things so he could not do something like… this. and top top that mess off, that blasted dragons egg was missing too.  
And then, annnnd then, the shadow servants that were meant to keep any unwanted guests out, and Callum in, had turned up. With his rather dishevelled looking children. And some more shadow servants (plus a couple of shadow wolves). And not one, not two, but five live, angry, hog tied moonshadow elves.  
Moonshadow assassins by the looks of things at that.  
the same ones that had given him some grief, but had been driven off after he had managed to put a decent slash into the side of that one in purple with an undercut.  
He was still bleeding, if not as freely.  
“…. How.” Was the only thing he had to ask.  
Soren just pointed at Claudia, who grinned widely and made a grand gesture to the billowing bank of shadows that were drifting just behind them.  
Right, of course. Being suddenly swamped by enemies that conventional weaponry passed clean though with no effect would have been had to defend against, especially if one of your own is already hurt.  
the elves had all given up struggling against their binds for the moment, and where huddled together in a little cluster, shooting death glares at the 3 of them. and slightly more nervous looks at the shadows standing guard.  
“wellllll” Claudia drawled “moon elves are very useful for spell components, right?”  
Now a couple of them looked a little worried. Good.  
“and we figured that they would not be this far into katolis unless they were, you know, up to something.” Soren piped up. “thought you might want to ask them about that too.”  
Huh. The boy did have a brain.  
With a sigh Viren reopened the doorway into the tower, which he had just sodding repaired, and had the shadows march the prisoners inside. The small anti chamber at the base of the stairs was not much, but it would be enough to hold them until the wagon, and the supplies that was on it could be recovered.  
Soren had already grabbed his horse to fetch it.  
That left Viren and Claudia with not much to do in the meantime, apart from plot on how to get a certain prince back, alive and unharmed. They still had no idea who had helped him, or how far they had gotten, so fast thinking was going to be a must of there whole plan was not going to be for nought.  
But all they could do for the moment was sit and wait. and plot.  
Well, Viren suppressed a small chuckle, could always start the integration whilst he waited for Soren to get back.  
He could use this .. golden opportunity teach Claudia some new spells. One of which was most differently worth its weight in gold. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Claudia's way of catching elves: shadow servant dog pile.


	9. Family ties

Family ties

“what do you mean ‘missing’” King harrow of Katolis boomed, voice filling the throne room.   
“Prince callum is.. gone form his tower, sire. I am already putting together a search and rescue party.”   
Viren was one of Harrow’s oldest, and closest friends, through fire, ice and storms. They were almost like brothers in their younger years.   
He, of all people, knew that the kings fuse was.. short.. concerning threats to his family.   
This little problem could end with a fire lit under him, alive, if he did not tread very carefully.   
The king breathed out heavenly, a look of anger and pain evident on his face as he stood up from the throne, and stormed down to were Lord Viren was standing. Viren tried his best to keep his face as sympathetic to the king’s current predicament. Callum may not of been his own child, and oh there was so much controversy when the boy kept after the late queen’s death, but the king loved him with all his heart.   
“… is there any clues to who may be behind this? Be real Viren, if he could of gotten out on his own, he would of a long time back.”   
“at the moment, no. but..”   
“But? What do you mean by ‘but’?”   
Viren gulped. He did no want to bring this up just yet.   
“ah, well, we found something interesting in the forest.” Viren felt his scarred leg starting to throb from the strain being put on it.   
“oh?” Harrow cocked his eyebrow.   
“we found- “ Viren’s leg promptly gave out, dumping the mage on the floor with very little in the way of dignity. Harrow immediately made to help him back up, giving his old friend something to lean on that was not his staff.   
“thank you, Harrow. As I was saying, we found a troop of moonshadow elves. Assassins, at that.”   
"… what. Moonshadow elves? Moonshadow ASSASSINS?! What the hell where they doing in Katolis?”   
“we.. don’t know that. They are not talking. And to make things worse.. when we found there camp, we found 6 tents, sleeping rolls ect, but, oh Harrow, we only captured 5 elves.”   


The dawing look of complete horror on harrows face said everything. Moonshadow elf assassin’s had a terrifying reputation amongst the human kingdoms, both for there skill’s in fighting and infiltration. Normally, the only way you would find out about said elves being around was when there target was found dead.   
The good thing so far was that no body was found. Moonshadow elves always left the body to be found. It was a small comfort, but better than nothing.   
Harrow had never seen an elven assassin face to face. But, if any of them knew what happened to his boy, whether they were behind this or not, and they were not talking to Viren… well, perhaps they would talk to him.   
“I want to see them.” he said, after a pause.   
“I beg your pardon?” Viren was not expecting this reaction, not at all.   
“I said, Viren, that I want. To. see. Them. or at least one of them.”   
“…….may I ask why?”   
Harrow took a deep breath, and looked Viren head in the eyes.   
“to talk.”   
“…..I highly doubt you will get any information from them.” Viren said, a weariness in his voice.   
“I don’t care, Viren. Take me to them.”   
Viren got a resigned look on his face, and nodded. 

\- 

Things went just as well as Viren had thought it would.   
He had led the king down to the holding cells in one of the many dungeons that existed in the bowls of the castle.   
The elves were chained in separate, small, dark cells.   
They had been stripped of all weaponry, bound, gagged and now knelt in an eerie silence, the only sound they made was the light sounds of breathing, and the rustling of clothing.   
Harrow looked into each cell, taking in the lithe figures. No one was willing to let the king into the cells with them, so he viewed them through viewing hatches only. Even chained, there were reports of jailers being badly injured by captive elves- those horns could be rammed into a target with a lot of force.   
And they would bite. Hard.   
One of the guards was already nursing wounded hand.   
After a bit of quiet discussion, one of the elves, a long haired, very hansom gent with intense turquoise eyes was dragged from his cell, into a side room, and re chained to a heavy, led lined chair, that was bolted to the floor for extra security.   


The guards were not taking any chances with their king. 

“we pegged this one as the boss, so to speak. Good luck.” The head jailer muttered to him. Harrow gave her a half smile, took a deep breath, and walked into the room.   
The elf gave him a glare that could probably etch granite at 50 paces.   
Harrow responded with what his sons would call ‘the angry dad look'.   
They kept up the clearing match for a number of minuets, before the elf broke eye contact with a snarl.   
“why are you in Katolis?”   
There was no reply, the elf just stared at the floor by his feet.   
“ok, I get it. Stupid question- there is only one reason that you would be here.” Harrow deadpanned “Ok. Who is on the hit list.”   
The elf still did not reply, But gave him a very, very flat look.   
“oh. Well then. Considering where you were found… you may need to have a long talk with who ever was holding the map.”   
That got a cocked eyebrow in response. But the elf still did not make a sound, and just stared back down at the floor.   
The following questions were all met with complete silence, more angry glaring and the odd huff. After a while, Harrow just gave up.   


“so, what are we going to do with them?” Asked one of the councillors that had followed him and Viren down to the dungeons.   
“well, technically, they have done something wrong… yet.”   
“but-“   
“I know, I know.” Harrow winced at the sound of the elf being dragged back to his cell. “we can’t condemn them for existing.”   
They all headed back up to the upper levels, discussing how to deal with the elves, who despite clearly being in the kingdom for a very dark reason, they had not broken any laws. The woodlands that they were captured in was royal property, but there were no bylaws that prohibited hunting and trekking/camping. There was no evidence that they had killed anyone yet- but they were now in the same building as their current target (The king).   
What a pickle.   
In the end, Harrow gave the order to let things sit for a day or so. Perhaps a couple of days in the slammer would soften them up a little.   
One hopes.   
Attention was turned to setting up a rescue party to find Prince Callum, which Lord Viren immediately offered to lead. Callum had been under his care after all, so it was only right that he fixed the problem by finding the missing prince.   
As Viren gathered together a small team of crown guard, his own kids, and some of the best hunting and tracking hounds out of the royal kennels, Harrow went to check in on Ezren, who had no idea, (he hoped) of the growing situation.   


Callums room’s door was open.   
The room had been kept clean, bed made and fresh flowers in vases, but unchanged from the day that Callum had left. Sometimes Harrow would swear that he would walk in to Callum scribbling away at his desk, or reading on his bed, or messing about with Ezren.   
His heart broke a little every time he realised that Callum was not there.   
He knocked on Ezren’s bedroom door.   
“Ezren?”   
The silence from beyond the door was..... concerning.   
“Ez?” He tried again, pushing the door open, half expecting to see the newly 10 year old passed out on his bed, his faithful glow toad spiralled next to him.   
The room was empty.   
A jolt of panic speared him in the chest, and Harrow franticly searched around the room for his youngest, but there is no signs of him, anywhere.   
It took him a moment to see the note on the bed. It was written in Ezren’s messy scrawl, and read: 

_“dad! Going to see aunt Amaya!   
Please don’t panic. I have bait with me, and she might take me to see Callum!   
Love you!   
Ezren” _   
Harrow blinked, looking between the note in his hand, and what turned out to be a military delivery schedule that was still sitting on the bed. It turned out that his sister in law was indeed meeting up with a supply wagon from the castle later on in the day.   
Back tracking Harrow found the nearest guard, and asked them if they knew when the wagon was due to leave, and thankfully they did.   
It had already left. 2 hours ago.   
King Harrow, for all his wisdom, as now starting to regret showing Ezren the first of the many secret tunnels a couple of years back. With a long sigh, he thanked the guard and made for the stables to inform the search team about the turn of events.   
Perhaps they could fetch two renegade princes for the price of one.   
__

_ _ \- _ _

_ _ Rayla peeked out of the wagon.   
Over the last day or so, they had rolled out of the woods, and through rich farmland bordering a wide, deep river.   
Watching from her perch in the back of the wagon, craftily disguised with a cloak and an some random bits of armour, Rayla had taking in the views of a kingdom that she had only heard about in stories from her fellow assassins. It was spring, so there was a lot of farmers out tilling and planting, an abundance of baby animals frolicking in fields, and humans, just going about their lives. The lack dark magic about was… disappointing to say the least. From Runaan’s stories, one would think that there would be more of it about.   
Callum had told her that they would be passing trough a small town soon.   
The town straddled the river, with bridges that spanned the river filled with travellers going too and throw, taking advantage of the bustling markets on both sides of the river, and a kaleidoscope of boats in the river below making up an ever changing floating market as well.   
They were told, point blank, to stay on the wagons until they were safely at the rest point.   
They had come too far to just loose them in the masses.   
It was a small miracle that zym was still sound asleep, hidden under some bedding.   
A pack of children ran along side the convoy as they rolled into town, waving at the soldiers whilst staying a respectable distance from the war horses. They passed under a gate, and was enveloped in the sights and smells of one half of a town in the middle of a typical market day.   
Rayla stared at the sights around her. humans, of all different hights, skin tones and hair colours all swirling together in a tapestry of sound, smell and colour. There was millers, tailors, farmers, and an array of traders all buying and selling with locals and travellers. She ducked her head down at the sight of armoured guards weaving through the crowds.   
Minstrels played, children laughed and ran. The whole place just.. loud, in many ways.   
It was just like the markets that Ethari would take her too back home, just with less horns.   
They passed through one of the market squares, some of the venders tried to make sales pitches to them as they went, and into an enclosed courtyard. The court yard was attached to the local guard station, and they were apparently meeting a supply wagon from the capital here.   
In a while.   
_ _

_ _ \- _ _

_ _ The sound of a minstrel playing somewhere outside caught her ears. The upbeat tune made Rayla tap her feet and sway in her seat. The troops around her were all relaxing, as well, some humming along with the tune, others chattering about friends and family.   
One of them, somewhere in the stables, was chatting about the letter he was hoping to get in the mail drop- he was going to be an uncle soon! His sister was gonna pop any day now. He sounded so excited. It was adorable.   
Zym was awake by now, and was merrily begging some bacon off of Gren, who was trying his damn hardest to stop the little dragon from climbing his legs to get at his food, whilst the General was egging Zym on.   
she could not really tell who was winning the encounter.   
Zym had made it up to Gren’s shoulders and was pawing at his head when Callum pulled her off the wagon. The mistral outside had started a different, vibrant tune.   
“hey, Rayla? Wanna dance?” Callum bobbed on his heels in time to the fiddle.   
“wa- dance?” she blinked in confusion   
Callum twirled around on his heels and offered her his hand in a silent offering, a gleeful grin on his face. She rolled her eyes at this, but took his hand anyway. Callum, surprisingly, was a pretty good dancer. He led her in a meandering, yet very bouncy dance around the courtyard, ducking and hopping along to the joyful music.   
Rayla happily kept up, dipping her sad prince at least once as they went. She was sure that she spotted the general giving the two of them a fond smile as she spun a laughing Callum around on the spot, when the sound of a bugle erupted from outside the gates.   
Quick as a flash the two of them bolted for the wagon, and hid under the bedding, as Zym was stuffed under them with them, a bit of Gren’s lunch in his mouth. _ _

_ _ \- _ _

_ _ The sounds outside told a story.   
The wagon from the capital had arrived, along with some crown guard who were, well, guarding it. Peeking out from under the covers, they watched as Amaya was given a scroll with the contents of the wagon on it. Then her and Gren went through the wagon, box by barrel, to make sure that what was on the scroll was on in the wagon.   
The crown guard, once dismissed, trundled over to chat with the other soldiers whilst there horses were taken care of. They were needed back at the castle sooner rather than later, and despite some very friendly offers from General Amaya, none of them fancy a shift at the border.   
Thanks for offering though.   
As the chattering continued, Amaya stopped what she was doing. She narrowed her eyes, suspiciously, at the small trail of crumbs that was leading to a largeish crate that was not, on closer inspection, on the list of things that was meant to be there.   
Huh.   
The crumbs, if she was correct, looked a lot like pastry crumbs, and, yes, there was the smallest smear of jam on the outside of the crate.   
And said create clearly had something glowing inside of it.   
Well, it appeared that they had a stow away.   
She motioned to Gren, and asked him to put his ear to the side of the crate for her.   
-yep. Someone is in there.- He confirmed. -they are tying to munch very quietly-   
-oh now?- she narrowed her eyes. – I wonder who it could possibly be…-   
-pasty crumbs.. glowing something… from the castle… gee Amaya. I wonder who it is.- Gren snarked at her, making Amaya smile. It was very obvious who was in the create. Callum raised his head over the side of the other wagon in confusion, only for Amaya motioned to him to get back down. The crown guard was still here, and she was not sure which of them were working for Viren.   
Then she hefted the create off of the back of the wagon and walked it a short distance away, setting it very gently down on the floor behind Callum’s wagon, making sure that the crown guard could not see it.   
The scribe finally came back with the correct transfer paperwork, which Amaya happily signed, and handed off to the commander of the crown guard. She saluted to Amaya, who saluted back, rounded up her lot and made there leave.   
The moment that the horses had left the courtyard, and the gate had clanged shut, she waltzed around to the side of Callum’s wagon, beckoning the two teenagers over to the side that the create was on. Gren handed her a crow bar, and stood back, allowing Amaya some space as she leaved the create carefully open.   
There was a almighty war yell from the inside of the create, and a child sized cannonball clad in red rocketed out of the create and clamped a hug around Amaya’s neck, knocking her back slightly. She blinked in surprise, but grinned down at the beaming face that was now nose to nose with her.   
-Hello Ezren.- she signed to the grinning, crumb covered prince. _ _


	10. Reunions and separations.

Reunions and separations.

Amaya gave Ezren a full, firm but gentle pat down to check him over for any sort of injuries that the little adventure may of picked up.   
There were none, since Ez had padded his create with a layer of straw, and a cushion from his room to make things more comfy. And he had painted ‘fragile’ and ‘this way up’ notices on the outside of the crate.  


Ezren was not a stupid 10 year old. Most of the time. 

He sat still whilst his aunt fussed over him, only moving to scoop his loyal growing companion, bait the glow toad, into his lap.   
Amaya sat back and gave her youngest nephew an exasperated look, shaking her head.   
-please tell me that the king knows you are here.”   


“I left a note.” Ezren chirped.   


-that.. that is not telling him Ezren.- Amaya was already picturing her brother in law’s panic, and the crown guard going nuts trying to find the little prince. The memories of the time that a game of hide and seek had gone a bit pear shaped came to mind. Ezren was no longer aloud to use the tunnels to hid anymore.  
“yes it dose” came the reply, much the amusement of the crowd of soldiers who had all congregated to find out what was going on.   


-no. it. Don’t.- Amaya finished this sentence with a boop to Ezren’s nose. -ok, young man, what possessed you to mail yourself out here? Apart from to give me a heart attack-   
(Gren made sure to sound particularly sassy when interpreting that last bit.)   
Ezren ducked his head a little in embarrassment, and shyly replied.   
“I was hoping you could take me to see Callum. I miss him.”   
Amaya gave the young prince a soft smile, ruffling his hair.   
-oh, don’t worry. I think that can be arranged.-   


Callum had not moved from his spot on the wagon. He had watched as his wonderful, Mischievous little brother had popped out of the strange create like a sugar powered jack in the box. They had not seen each over in.. wow, for a month, month and a bit? He had not realised how much he had missed the little tart thief.   
He could feel the mushy feelings descending. Like a landslide.  
“so you are gonna take me to see him?” the joy in Ezren’s voice made Callum’s heart leap, as did the silent chuckle from Amaya. This was going to be fun.   
-not quite…..- Amaya smiled so sweetly. Ezren gave her a strange look.   
Grinning, Amaya scooped up Ezren, and held him up so he could see over the side of the wagon. The squeal of complete and utter joy that Ezren let out made Rayla’s ears ring.   


“CALLUM!” the younger prince wiggled out of his aunt’s grip and tackled his brother. Callum had the briefest of moments to wonder if the king had signed Ezren up for rugby at some point before the 10 year old completely bowled Him over.   


The two of them rolled about for a moment, trying to out hug each over whilst rolling around and laughing.   
The play fight finished with Callum lamenting about grievous wound, leading to a dramatic death scene worthy of the capitals starlight theatre, complete with calls for Rayla to avenge his cruel and tragic demise. At the hands of his brother no less!   
Rayla was too busy trying, and failing to swallow down the laughter to say anything. 

Callum was finally put out of his misery by Zym, who bounded out of his hiding spot to split up what looked like a vicious attack on his adopted dad. He jumped on top of Ezren and stated to bat at his Fluffy hair, squeaking and chattering in mock anger, before settling on covering the faces of both boys in zappy licky kisses.   
“wa- hey! He hatched!” Ez exclaimed once the bouncing ball of blue chaos had settled down between the two of them, lapping up the cuddles and pets on offer.   
“yes, yes he did.” Callum smiled, then remembered a rather big, horned detail that Ezren needed to know about.   
“hey, Ez, there is someone I want you to meet.. hey, Rayla, come meet my brother……”   


\- 

“so… elves don’t drink blood.”   
“no.”   
“but you do have sharp teeth”   
“yes.” Rayla gave Ez a toothy, wolfly grin to prove it.   
“wooooooooooow”   


Callum watched the two of them from his perch on the wagon, chuckled, and went back to sketching the very cute vista in front of him. Rayla and Ezren were sitting opposite to each other in the shade of the sables, Rayla had Bait on her head, and Ez had Zym spiralled out in his lap, snoring. They were getting along like a barn on fire, and to be honest, Callum was completely fine with this. Rayla was a good friend to have.   
They were hanging around the yard for a little longer whist Amaya decided on how to deal with Ezren, since well, he had snuck out, without telling His father (or anyone for that matter), putting himself in danger in the progress.   
That was not something to be rewarded- but it was hard to be mad at him all the same.   


In the end, after a long talk with the Gren and another one of her lieutenants, it was decided that it would be good for Exren to maybe get some work experience under his little belt, in the standing battalions stables perhaps? To build character and such.   
Amaya was writing a letter explaining everything to King Harrow, including where and when he could pick up his wayward son, and one to the fort to give them a update to what was going on, when one of the stable hands skittered up to her, bowed and related a message from Corvis, who was acting as a plain clothed lookout.   
Viren was in town. With company.   
Trouble level company.   


Woop. 

She thanked the lanky teen, and started shooting orders to all present to get them up and going post haste.   
They had to get going. Now.   


\- 

Lord Viren and his hunters had come in the north-west gate, and were talking to the town guard, so the decision was made to sliver out of the south-east gate as fast and quietly as a troop of heavily armoured troops and two wagons could sneak.   
The good thing about this town being a bustling market town was that no one really gave the convoy a second glance. The downside of this being a bustling market town was that it was busy, and the going was slow as they navigated trough the dense crowds.   
Callum and Rayla huddled under the tarp, Ezren, Zym and Bait squished between them, tensing at every bump and loud noise as they rolled along. 

They were very much expecting to have to run very, very fast, should it come to it.   
The hunters were all on horseback, but in the crowded streets and alleys, the kids would have an advantage, being small and quick. Plus the platoon was under orders to block the way of the hunters as much as possible should the kids be discovered, which would, in theory, give them long enough to disappear out of one of the other exits, to regroup later on down the way.   
If they were caught, that is.   
It took half of a nerve wracking hour to reach the south east gate, and another 15 minutes for them to be waved trough, due in part to a very angry famer wailing to the gate guard about his cabbages, and more importantly (to him) the sad destruction of said cabbages by some riff raff.   


The farmer was hysterical.   
The gate guards were 20 shades of unimpressed.   


Finally, after watching the free show, they rolled through the south east gate and into the hilly woodland beyond. 

\- 

“So.. they were here as of a hour ago.”   
“more like half an hour, but yes.”   


The yard was empty, save for some straw the remains of a large create, broken down and neatly stacked near the doorway to the kitchens, with a note attached labelling it to be used for fire wood. Lord Viren had to admit, the standing battalion could really move when they wanted too.   
The hunting party still gave the place a look over, searching for any signs that the wayward princes had at some point been there. The staff had offered up very little in the way of information when asked, apart from yes they were here and nothing strange had happened due in the handover.  


Even the crown guard that they had bumped into on there ways back out had had no information for them. 

It was proving to be very frustrating search.   
Soren piped up that Ezren at least would be safe under his aunt care once she found him, but that would still leave Callum unaccounted for. which was rather worrying  
Viren stopped in the middle of the barren courtyard, thinking hard for a long, uncomfortable moment.   


Then he turned back to the rest of the party. 

“captain Frazer?” the dark haired, broad featured veteran at the far edge of the group snapped to attention. “take a handful of troops and head back up the king’s road towards the oakensea woodlands. Callum is not idiot, he would know to stick to the road, and that the best way home would be to head to here first- check the road for any sign of him. Take a messenger crow and report back if you find anything.”   
Captain Frazer promptly picked out 5 others to go with him, and prepared to head out.   
“the rest of you, with me. We will follow the Battalion caravan. We need to speak to General Amaya with urgency. She may be able to help us find Prince Callum faster.” 

\- 

High above them, riding a thermal, a crow flew with urgency, heading for the rookery at Katolis’s royal castle, bearing a message for the king, sealed with dark blue wax seal. 

\- 

Deep in the bowls of the castle, a pack of guards were having a very bad day.   
First, the elven prisoners would not eat, and had really not appreciated being force fed.   
Then they would try to bite, strike, or gore anyone who approached them in there cells.   
And now? 

One was missing. 

The short, spunky dark skinned one (nicknamed Mr. Murder britches by the guards) had somehow slipped out of his cell, and into the vast underbelly of the castle.   
They were now drawing straws to who told the king this fact.   



	11. near misses

Near misses.

Harrow swore he saw a shadow dart across the corner of his room as he worked. A careful scan of the room turned up nothing.  
Not a peep.  
The letter from his beloved, snarky sister in law had soothed his worry somewhat, whilst also providing just enough information to suggest that she may know a little bit more than she was letting on. 

Typical Amaya. 

Harrow had spent the last day or so worried for his sons, worried about the elves that were in the dungeons, very worried about the one that had gotten out, and just flat out worried.  
He could feel his hair going gray as the minuets ticked by.  
So, once the letter had been read top to bottom, and the news of the break out had reached him via a very worried young guard, King harrow of Katolis had made up his mind on what he was going to do about it. 

He was going to pay his sister in law a visit.  


It was … 3 days? Less than that to the next full moon. Hopefully putting a bit of distance between him and the elves, especially the escape artist, would do him a lot of good.  
Plus, he could lecture his youngest in person.  
And get to spend a little bit of time with his sister in law without the pressure and scrutiny of the Royal court pressing down on Him.  


Packing light, filling only a backpack and some saddle bags with the bare essentials (clothing, some legal stuff that needed to be done, toiletries, the royal seal approve said legal stuff, some books, bird seed ect), and called Pip to his side.  
The brilliant back and green Zadian song bird glided in through the open balcony doors, taking his place on Harrow’s shoulder as the king locked the door, scooped up his luggage, including Pips’s travel cage, and made for the exit of his rooms.  
The shadow flitted again, making Pip chirp in alarm.  


Harrow felt his hackles rise at the feeling that there was someone somewhere behind him, so quickly stepped into the hallway, and firmly shut the door behind him. He tried to ignore the soft thump that could be heard on the closed door has he made down the hall, fast. Giving some rushed but believable excuse to the guards as He passed by them.  
He had a good idea what that had been, and had no plans to meet them face to face. 

\- Bran cursed under his breath as the throwing knife thudded into the heavy wooden door, missing the rapidly leaving target by a very large margin. \- 

As the caravan rolled through the countryside, the patchy forest gave way to rolling plains, to more farmland, to hills, to rocky hills. As they went, more and more volcanic ash could be seen in the soil, and the sky turned from cloudy blue to a smudgy gray.  
It was the start of the gloom that came before the ash lands that border the fire stream.  
They had been traveling for just over a day and a bit with Ezren and bait along for the ride, and he had proven to be a right ray of sunshine as they went, chattering away about anything and everything that came to mind, from snails, to the cool spells that Callum knew (and Callum was happy to demonstrate. Apart from that lightning spell. There be horses around). 

They spent time singing songs from both sides of the border, with the soldiers chipping in with some of the politer marching songs that they knew, the boys taught Rayla some card games, Rayla taught them a couple of sleight of hand tricks and when they set down for the night, she tried to teach Callum some self-defence.  
Amaya had tried to warn Her about just how clutzy Callum could be, and had advised against giving him anything sharp to play with.  
She… was not kidding.  


\- Rayla was helping to bandage Callum’s hand. he had been holding one of her butterfly swords for the grand total of, what, 5 minutes before he had managed, somehow, to close it on his hand. Amaya just got a ‘I told you so’ look on her face and had fetched a medical kit out of her tent.  
It was not a bad wound, a glorified cut more than anything.  
But it needed to be seen to.  


“stop bein’ a wuss”  
“I’m sorry, but that stuff stings” Callum huffed, biting back winces as Rayla dabbed the brown liquid over the cut across his palm. Amaya rolled Her eyes.  
-wuss- 

Callum pouted at the two of them, making them both snicker.  
Rayla was wrapping his hand when Gren slunk over to Amaya’s side. He knelt down next to her, and swiftly signed something to her that made him frown darkly. Callum, who was watching over Rayla’s shoulder got a worried look in response to whatever was being said.  
“what is she sayin’?” Rayla mutted to him, being careful not to alert the drowsy Ezren who was hanging around the edge of the makeshift sparing ring.  


“I can’t catch a lot of it…. But Lord jerk is being referenced. A lot”  
The mention of the dark mage sent a chill up Rayla back.  
Amaya’s face darkened, and she signed back to Gren something that looked a lot like a command. Gren nodded, and darted back into the rows of tents that made up the camp. At the same time, Rayla’s ears pricked up, and she zeroed in on the sound of hooves somewhere on the road, just outside the fire light.  
Amaya made a sharp motion to the kids. She pointed to the two of them, minus Ezren , and then to the dark woods behind the tents.  
Callum grabbed his stuff off the grass, whilst Rayla nabbed Zym out of his blanket nest, and as one they bolted into the scrubby tree line, just in time for the tall, slim figure of Lord Viren strode into the camp. 

His cold gray eyes scanned the camp, taking in the sight of a small platoon camped out in the usual way, some of the troops sitting around the campfire, cooking some late dinner, others sticking their heads out of their tents to find out what was going on.  
And the slightly unusual sight of a high ranking general sitting next to an outed prince Ezren, who was snoring softly.  


-Hello Lord Viren, can we help you?-  
He looked at Amaya with a slightly worried look on His face.  
“ah yes, General, May I ask you something? Slightly delicate?”  
Amaya tilted her head to one side, and made a slight motion off to the side, indicating that she wanted to take the conversation away from camp a little.  
The 3 of them, Viren, Amaya and Gren, walked a little way away from the tents, into the firelight.  


-yes? What is it?-  
“General, do you know that Prince Callum is….. missing form his tower?”  
-MISSING?- Amaya looked furious, Hands flying -what do you mean by MISSING VIREN? You said he would BE SAFE IN THAT THING-  
“Amaya… please…” Viren held up his hands in surrender, trying to calm her down a little. He was perfectly aware that She could, and would, snap Him in half if mad enough. And she was very quickly getting to that point.  
-EXPLAN. NOW.-  


Viren managed to come up with some sort of story that was part way believable, or would be believable to anyone who did not know what was going on.  
The way he spun it, a pack of moonshadow elves had attacked the tower, triggering the defences the tower had, but not before they had somehow gained entry and spirited young Callum away, after ransacking the place. they had, thankfully, taken most of the elves into captivity, and they were now spending time at his majesty’s pleasure, locked in the cells.  
But, there was no sign of Callum, leading to the conclusion that he had managed to slip away at some point.  


“we have been trying to track him down, the king is awfully worried, as you can guess. We were hoping that you and your men might be able to lend a hand in trying to find him." 

-Viren, we are needed at the border. Your little stunt over winter has got us all on a knives edge. I cannot be away from the breach any longer than strictly necessary. You now this. Callum is a smart boy. He would be heading for home.-  
Viren flinched at her words.  
“General, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but we have already searched between the tower and the capital, and we still have people looking, but we believe that he might try to reach you. You know what that boy is like when he panics”  


Amaya pulled a face. Not good.  


“and.. ah.. I have not told anyone this… but Callum needs some medication, to manage his condition. He could suffer a major relapse if he goes too long without it. May I leave a couple of doses with you, in case he turns up?”  
Amaya was suspicious, Callum had not mentioned anything about any medication, but she nodded, and accepted a caddy full of small vials, full of a fine, milky blue powder  
“he needs a vial a day, it can be put into food or drink. That’s how he’s been taking it until now.”  


Viren and Amaya continued there talk for a little longer, hashing out a plan to what would be done when Callum was found, and what the next steps would be.  
As viren was leaving the camp, heading back to where he was caped out with a small pack of hunters, a couple of miles away back down the way, Amaya had a one last question for him.  


-dose the King know, about the medication?-  
Viren tuned back to her, looking if anything, rather sheepish.  
“ah…ha, uh, no. I did not want to worry him.”  
With that, he ducked out of the camp.  



	12. Troubles

The guards stared at the 5 open cells in front of them, and felt a cold chill run down there collective spines. 

Before shift change, 4 of those cells had contained some highly dangerous, but well chained elven assassins. One elf had escaped the night before, leading to a complete search of the castle and its grounds to try to find him, with no luck.   
Now, there were no elves in the cells, and the store room that they had locked all there equipment in had been busted into, and ransacked.   
A bloodhound had tracked the sent of the escapees to a window. One that overlooked the battlements.   
And there was a report of elves on the move being sighted on the outskirts of the city.   
Heading in the direction that the king had been heading in.   


This.. was not good. 

\- 

Callum stared at the vials, a look of concern on his face.   
“… no. I have not been on any medication. Well, none that I know of.” 

The chief medical officer, one corporal Shandi, gave the vials a highly suspicious glare, and went back to giving Callum a complete medical check-up, compering her own notes to the ones that had been swiped from Viren’s lab at the tower.   
Things checked out, in the most part. The only outliers was the vials that Viren had given to Amaya and some notes about some ‘magic capture’ installed in the tower, and how it was meant to work. Meant to.   


The only reason they were finding out about this deceptively simple, yet very evil bit of magic was because the paperwork detailing it had gotten muddled in with some of the very in depth medical records that Viren had made about Callum.   
One of the soldiers had scooped them up by mistake. 

By the looks of it, he had yet to get it to work, and the implications of what it could do was, flatly horrifying. The ruins had been worked into the fancy floor tiles, and into the carved beams of the tower itself, making a cage of sort that sap the magic out of whatever was imprisoned inside it. The drain was designed to be nonfatal, instead, by the looks of it, if the writings were correct, the spell would instead slowly siphon off the magic into liquid form, to be collected in the vessels that where in the lab- for reasons yet unknown.   
The thought of that happening to anyone made Rayla blanch, as did the realisation that nowhere in the papers did it say why Viren was doing any of this. It was already an accepted fact that he was probably using the blood samples that he had been taking in dark magic experiments, once again, for reasons unknown.   
Rayla… was very pleased that they had been rescued from that shadow damned tower.   
But, most of all, She wanted back to Zadia.   


Like..now. 

\- 

So. Apparently she would not be going back to Zadia any time soon. 

After dropping the kids, wagons and platoon at the fort, and taking a snack and drink brake, Amaya had disappeared down the narrow path that connected fort Ferris to the outpost, to make sure that they way was clear for travel, and to inform the staff of the outpost that she had returned.   
She had been gone less that half an hour before she was back, dusty and worried, with exactly half a sword.   
In the simplest terms, there were Sunfire elves in the passage, and one particularly beautiful bitch had a sun forged blade.   
Amaya was now worried about what could be going on at the outpost- so rounded up a small platoon, made sure they were all heavily armed, and headed back out to try and sort things out. Callum and Ezren waved them off from the gate, then settled down to wait for them to get back. 

\- 

Callum sat with a book in Amaya’s office, keeping tabs on a snoozing puppy pile consisting of Ezren, Bait and Zym, all cuddled up happily on the rug. They were all worn out after a high speed game of chase the baby dragon around the battlements, which ended in a round of fishing the baby dragon out of the mess hall, after Zym had decided that some of the food on offer smelt real good.   
two of the lieutenants at lunch had food swiped clean off their plates before Rayla managed to drag zym back out, yelling apologues as she went.   
The sausages were very tasty, apparently.   


Rayla was now poking around the plants that were dotted around the General’s office, which turned what would have been a dull room into a slice of rain forest.   
She poked at one of the vibrant, velvety blooms that decorated a trailing something or another that was next to one of the windows, taking in the sweet sent that it released into the air. 

“… somethings up.” Callum muttered to her.   
“what makes you say that?” She asked, looking at him with confusion.   
“don’t know.” He admitted. “just.. something is up.”   
There was a commotion growing down in the courtyard of the fort.   


The two of them leaned out of the small window, looking down to try to work out what was going on.   
It was dark out, with the constant cloud of ash blocking a lot of the natural sunlight, but the red glow of the lava illuminated the outlines of more soldiers then had gone out, filing back into the fort, with the almost spectral glow of His aunt on horseback bringing up the rear.   
Callum could tell, even from a distance, that she was not happy about something. 

Joy. 

\- 

\- its just a scratch!- Amaya tried to protest, as Shandi passive aggressively applied a antibiotic ointment to the burn mark on her shoulder   
“you were burned by a sunforged blade. That, young lady, dose not count as a scratch.”   


Amaya sat back in her chair and pouted, which made the other occupants in the room giggle like the bunch of children they were. Which made Amaya stick her tongue out of them, 

“so.. what do we do now?” Rayla asked after Shandi had finished tending to the rest of Amaya bumps and scrapes.   
-I… don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. We are in a bit of a bind- Amaya admitted. 

The Sunfire elves had taken the outpost, and had ambushed Amaya’s platoon when they had turned up to check on things. Thankfully, most of the soldiers that had been manning the outpost had been rescued, and they had been able to retreat with minimal injury.   
Amaya had been clipped by the ‘Beautiful, terrible queen of an elf’s’ sunforge blade, which had burnt through her breast plate, reinforced tunic, and undergarments, leaving a gash in her skin. It had been the worst injury out of anyone, and she was trying to play it off as nothing.   


Shandi was having none of it. 

But that still left the problem of how to return an elf and a dragon to Zadia.   
Amaya needed a lot of tea before brainstorming could begin. 

\- 

Claudia scratched the final rune into the wooden plank. 

The ember-back spider that she had caught sat passively under the upturned glass in the middle of the rune circle that she had, over the course of an hour, etched around it.   
They, she, her family and the hunters, had all camped out just over the crest of a hill, out of sight of fort ferris and it’s eagle eyed General.   


Viren had used a spy glass to keep watch on the fort from a distance, and had quickly worked out that a certain someone had been lying to them the night before. He had spotted Callum up on the battle at least twice in the space of half an hour. The prince was extremely recognisable with his red scarf and blue jacket.   
So, whilst Viren was talking with the hunters (and Soren) about ways to get Callum back, she started to see if she could fix the magic drain spell that her dad was working on.   
Having a steady supply of concentrated primal magic would make things so much easier, and hey! It was not like the spell would hurt Callum. Much. It might make him a little uncomfortable though. 

With a flourish, she checked her work, checked that the little glass vile was positioned just so under the draining groove, and activated the spell. 

The spider twitched, jerked, and went limp, seemingly in a trance, as the rune circle drew its primal source out it, and into the vile. The liquid was a bright yellow orange, and made the glass warm to the touch.   
After a while, she deactivated the spell, and the spider snapped out of it’s trance, and started scuttling around, upset.   
Success. Dad would be so pleased. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thankyou for all the support that you have all shown for this!   
i think that there is... 3 or 4 more chapters of this story to go after this, but i already have plans for a sort of sequel .... :3


	13. Tention

Tension

Amaya stared at the … box… that was sitting on the table in front of her. a box that was not made from any wood she recognised, and was roughly the right size to fit a head in. 

-what is this?- she demanded. Gren pulled one hell of a face, but did not respond. The box, and its mysterious contents had been left outside the main gate, with only a sealed envelope addressed to ‘the silent one’ tied neatly to the handle of said box giving any clue to who it was for.  
It had already been run past the pair of sniffer hounds that the battalion had, who had not picked up the sent of any poisons or explosives and Callum had even run that magic… cube… thingy that Harrow had gifted him, that had runes that lit up when it detected the corresponding primal magic. So, all things considered, there was a good chance that it was not boogy trapped in any way, but at the same time, there was no way to be sure. 

The box its self was simple, made of a dark, red tinged wood, with a fine geometric patten picked out with gold enamel.  
The lid even had a handle, for easy transport.  
It was simply a very fine box. 

Amaya donned a pair a thick gloves, tied a bandanna around her mouth and nose, just in case, and popped the latch to the side of the box.  
There was no puff of poisoned dust, or any signs that the box was going to explode, so she pressed on. She flipped the lid open, revealing the fabric lined interior, and the shiny blue and silver object that was nestled inside.  
She tilted her head in confusion.  
Gren, who was sitting next to her, peered over her shoulder to look at the object. 

Softly, gently, she lifted the thing out of the box, and froze.  
She recognised it. 

\- 

“so… someone sent you your own helmet?” Callum looked as confused as Amaya felt. 

The helmet had been polished to a mirror like shine, and a small dent that had been present for a couple of years had been worked out.  
But more interesting, and worryingly, the whole thing had been etched, carved even, with what looked like stylised rune work, in a beautiful spiralling patten, that looked a bit like vines. If Amaya had to guess, it had been done with a sunforged dagger.  
This…. Did not bode well. 

\- 

Viren watched the fort from his rocky vantage point, looking for the young mage prince on the battlements. 

There had been no sign of him over the last day or so, which was making him paranoid that they had been rumbled in some way, but at the same time, Amaya had not come storming out to confront him over his actions, so…hum  
And then there was that sun elf that he had spotted darting up to the front gate of the fort, dropping something, then darting off.  
Which was behaviour more akin to a sly moon elf. 

He shook his head, and went back to the camp. 

He got half way down the hill, cursing his scared knee, which had chosen the most annoying time to start to play up, when he heard something coming from the road.  
He stopped, and slid behind a craggy bolder.  
The camp down the hill was hidden from the road too, a mix of magic and the natural landscape, and his own dark clothing made him hard to pick out angst the black rocks in the gloom. The rider on the road was completely unaware of his presence. 

He could only see there silhouette in the haze of the midday heat and glow of the too close for comfort lava, but what he could tell was it was a single rider on horse back (a warhorse, if the haze was not distorting the silhouette too much), leading a smaller pack pony along behind them. they were not in any rush, just ambling along at a leisurely pace.  
Viren decided that this person was probably delivering something to the fort, and had not seen him, so was, therefore, of no matter to Viren or his plans.  
But, it would not hurt to stay down for a little bit longer, until the rider had made it further down the way. 

\- 

To be honest, if he knew, he would have been a little more worried about what was following the rider. 

\- 

The assassins were taking a water brake. 

They were all completely and utterly drained, having been going flat out for a number of days, barely stopping for food and rest as they tried to catch up with their moving target.  
They were crashing. And it was showing. 

Runaan lent back against one of the craggy black rocks that ringed there rest spot, and shut his eyes. The king was just out of reach, but if they kept going this way, they would be sitting moorhens for anyone that found them.  
Plus, he would be in the middle of a very well-armed fort within the hour.  
And that mage had probably realised that they were gone, and was most probably tracking them down as they sat, exhausted.  


Castello stared at nothing for the longest moment. “we can’t keep this up.” Was the only thing that he said. And it was true. 

Runaan had a decision to make. 

“we will rest here. For as long as we need.” Runaan came out with, as the rest of the squad slumped down.  
“get some sleep, we can go hunting tomorrow for some food. Or raid the stores of that village we passed. That king will have to come back past here at some point. I will take first watch”  
As the others started to fall asleep at record speed, Runaan’s mind drifted back to the missing member of there little team. Rayla had not been in the dungeon. She had not been in the woods. In fact, the humans had only ever made reference to the 5 of them. it was like she had been swallowed up by the earth its self. He hoped that she had been spooked by the mage and all the dark magic that had been in those woods, and had made for home the moment she was separated from them. 

He hoped and prayed that this was the case. 

He would never admit it, but he would rather her be a coward this one time, then be laying dead somewhere. 

\- 

Callum squared up to the target, and took aim. The training dummy sat innocently, wearing a spare helmet and a decommissioned breastplate, completely unaware of what was just about to happen to it. Concentrating, he drew the rune for Fulminis in the air in front of him, and sent lightning arcing across the training ground, striking the dummy clean on the bullseye that was painted on it. Callum smiled smugly.  


Across the training grounds, sitting next to a tub full of warm soapy water and a pile of dirty dishes, Ezren cheered.  
“Bulleye! Good shot callum!”  


Ezren, on orders of the General, had been put to work doing small chores around the fort, from running letters to washing dishes as punishment for sneaking out the way he did. Nothing too hard, he was still ten after all, but enough to be classed as punishment.  
Ezren had been allowed to do the dishes outside, though, because the kitchens were sweltering at this time of day, and he wanted to watch Callum train.  
(The sad puppy eyes may have been weaponized a little.)  
So he was sitting on the side of the yard, with Zym sprawled out next to him, doing his chores and enjoying the show. 

meanwhile, Rayla was lounging up on the battlements watching the boys. 

The sun elves were still barring the path home, and to make it worse, one of the look outs had spotted some dark mage flavoured ‘suspicious activity’ going on back the way they came, which meant that back tracking and trying to find her way back to the moonstone path was out of the question too.  
She was between a rock and a hard place, in so many ways.  
But hey, at least there was food and entertainment here. 

She stretched lazily, and popped up to her feet. 

From her perch, she could see the front gate, and could make out that there was something interesting going on over there. The gate guard had clearly greeted someone, then had very, very quickly dashed off to .. somewhere whilst a small crowd of conveniently off duty troops and staff carved out of curiosity.  
The boys hadn't realised this yet, and when she looked down to check on them, the dummy was half encased in ice, and Callum was coming up with some rather painful ice themed puns to go with it. In the distance, the gate guard had returned with the General and Gren in toe.  
Well, Rayla though to herself, settling back down, she can handle it. 

\- 

King Harrow of Katolis gave his sister in law a sheepish smile and returned the bone crushing hug that she gave him.  
After she had scolded him a little for not doing the decent thing and sending a letter ahead to tell them that he was coming. Well, she did guess that he would turn up eventually to collect a certain someone who had snuck out, but an ETA would have been nice.  
All that aside, she was happy to see him, and even happier that he had been practising his signing.  
he was getting pretty good! not fluent, but good. 

They chatted away, as Harrow took his horse and Ezren’s pony to the stables to get them settled in, catching up on the little bits of news that had not gotten from one place to the other in the months since winter, when they had had there last family get together. With Callum.  
Ah, Callum. He prayed the boy was ok. 

once the horse and pony were both tucked safely into stables, with plenty of water and feed after the long trip they had just had, Amaya insisted on carrying one of the his bags as she led the way to the guest lodgings, a place that he knew all so well.  
He had met Sarai there once upon a time.  
Half way across the main courtyard, Pip chirped demandingly from inside his travel cage, and Harrow let him out to stretch his wings after spending most of the day cooped up, the brilliant black and green bird did a lap of the battlements before returning to his shoulder, puffing up his feathers happily as he cooed.  
The sound of laughter that caught Harrow’s ears helped him to zero in on the current location of Ezren.  
He sighed, smiling. 

The sound of innocent laughter was a lovely thing indeed. 

**Author's Note:**

> you lot can all blame kuno-chan over on tumbles for this little idea.  
( https://kuno-chan.tumblr.com/ )  
anyhow, enjoy :)


End file.
